The Old Court House is the first court building constructed in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. It is located between

Stirling Gardens Stirling Gardens is a small public park in Perth, Western Australia. Located on the corner of St Georges Terrace and Barrack Street, west of the Government House and north of the Supreme Court buildings, it contains a group of significant scu ...

and

Supreme Court Gardens __NOTOC__ Supreme Court Gardens is a park in the central business district of Perth, Western Australia, bounded by Riverside Drive, Barrack Street, Governors Avenue, and the buildings of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. In the late 188 ...

, off

Barrack Street Barrack Street is one of two major cross-streets in the Perth central business district, central business district of Perth, Western Australia. Together with St Georges Terrace, Wellington Street, Perth, Wellington Street and William Street, Pe ...

, adjacent to the Supreme Court building. It is a single-storey cream rendered building, with a wooden shingle roof. Completed in 1836, it is the city's oldest surviving public building and is one of two remaining examples of the work of

Henry Reveley Henry Willey Reveley (1788–1875) was a civil engineer responsible for the earliest public works at the Swan River Colony, the foundation of the state of Western Australia. Life Reveley was the son of Willey and Maria Reveley (later Gisborne) ...

, the colonial civil engineer. It is one of the few remaining buildings designed in the classical Greek revival style of the 19th century in Perth.

Description

The Old Court House building stands at the south-east corner of

in Perth. It is a simple looking building of Georgian style architecture. It is of stone rubble construction with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

finish. It is a small simple building with a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

, which was originally clad with

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

. The entry portico, which was added later, is supported by

doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

pillars. The area around the north and west of the building is paved in sandstone coloured interlocking concrete paving bricks.

History

In 1836,

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

James Stirling gave orders for the construction of a

court house A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-sp ...

in Perth. In February 1836,

Henry Willey Reveley Henry Willey Reveley (1788–1875) was a civil engineer responsible for the earliest public works at the Swan River Colony, the foundation of the state of Western Australia. Life Reveley was the son of Willey and Maria Reveley (later Gisborn ...

, the colonial civil engineer from 1829 to 1838, prepared plans and specifications for the new building. Reveley was responsible for the design and construction of several early public buildings in the colony, including the

Round House Roundhouse may refer to: Architecture and buildings Types * Roundhouse (dwelling), a kind of house with circular walls, prehistoric and modern, all over the world ** Atlantic roundhouse, an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and weste ...

in Fremantle, the Commissariat Store, the Government Offices, the first Soldiers' Barracks, and

Government House Government House is the name of many of the official residences of governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors in the Commonwealth and the remaining colonies of the British Empire. The name is also used in some other countries. Gover ...

in Perth. The Court House in those days stood close to the original shoreline of the Swan River. It was completed in December 1836. The first Court of General Quarter Sessions was held in the building on 2 February 1837. The building was officially opened with a Church service conducted by the Reverend

John Burdett Wittenoom John Burdett Wittenoom (24 October 1788 – 23 January 1855) was a colonial clergyman who was the second Anglican clergyman to perform religious services in the Swan River Colony, Australia, soon after its establishment in 1829. Biography Ea ...

on Good Friday, 24 March 1837. The Court House continued to double as a place of worship until St George's Church was built in 1842. Aside from its general purpose use as a court house and temporary place of worship, the building was also used as a schoolroom. On 20 September 1847 the first Perth Boys' School was established in the building. Prior to the construction of the Mechanics Institute and the

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

the Court House was the only substantial building in Perth suitable for public meetings. The building played an important role as a focus for the cultural life of the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...

. The building, now referred to as the Old Court House, was called into service intermittently between 1856-1863 as an emergency immigration depot. In 1863 following repairs and alterations the building was once again utilised as a court house, this time for the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. The Supreme Court occupied the building from 1863 until September 1879, when the Supreme Court relocated to new premises in the remodelled former Commissariat Store, a short distance from the old Court House in Stirling Gardens. From 29 July 1905 until 1965 the building was used by the Arbitration Court. Minor changes were made to the building in 1921. On 14 October 1966, following renovations to the building which included a new shingled roof, the Law Society of Western Australia was granted use of the building for its official premises. In 1974 a Law Museum was established in the building. In 1985 the Law Society relocated its offices and the building underwent internal refurbishment to reconstruct its appearance as the Arbitration Court of 1905. In 1987 the

Francis Burt Sir Francis Theodore Page Burt (14 June 1918 – 8 September 2004) was an Australian jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of Western Australia, from 1977 to 1988, and the 27th Governor of Western Australia, from 1990 to 1993. Burt w ...

Legal Education Centre was established in the building.

Current use

The Old Court House currently houses the Old Court House Law Museum, operated by the

Law Society of Western Australia Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, which focuses on the history of the law, legal issues and the legal profession in Western Australia.

Heritage value

The Old Court House was entered into the Register of the National Estate by the

Australian Heritage Commission The Australian Heritage Commission (AHC), was the Australian federal government authority established in 1975 by the ''Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975'' as the first body to manage natural and cultural heritage in Australia until its de ...

in October 1980 and classified by the National Trust of Australia (WA) in February 1978. On 14 February 2003 it was placed on the permanent state heritage register.

Notes

References

External links

* {{official website Landmarks in Perth, Western Australia State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Perth Courthouses in Perth, Western Australia Museums in Perth, Western Australia Law enforcement museums in Australia