Buildings...
Fremantle Prison was built as a convict establishment by the British government in the 1850s. The main cellblock provided accommodation for as many as 1000 men mostly in single cells or large dormitories. As well as the cell block, within the fifteen foot high boundary wall were other buildings: the kitchen, bakehouse washhouse complex, the bathhouse, workshops, hospital and the refractory cells, all of which played a vital part in the life of the prison.
In June 1850 the first 75 convicts, with their warders, Prisoner Guards and their families arrived in Fremantle. The sole prison accommodation then available was the Roundhouse which was clearly too small, so Captain Henderson hired and refurbished a warehouse from a local merchant, Daniel Scott, as a temporary prison. Here the first convicts and those who followed them lived for five years whilst they built the permanent prison. They were moved into its southern half in May 1855 thus began the occupation of the prison which was to continue unbroken up to the present day. In 1886 the British Government transferred control of Fremantle Prison and its supporting buildings to the colonial government of Western Australia. It became the main prison for the colony, and later the State.