Old Perth Gaol (museum precinct): prison profile
WA | Decommissioned | Australian Prison Directory
Source-linked profile checked 11 November 2026. Dates and capacities below describe the stated source period, not necessarily today’s available beds or prisoner population.
About this facility
The surviving limestone gaol and courthouse stands inside today’s WA Museum Boola Bardip complex. It succeeded the earlier gaol opposite Government House and housed local prisoners and convicts. Its court role ended before the prison phase; later museum expansion removed the cells and incorporated the surviving building.
Classification: Historical gaol; modern security classification not assigned retrospectively
Contact details
Address: Old Court House & Gaol, WA Museum Boola Bardip complex, 5 Francis Street, Perth WA
Address note: Heritage-property location inside the museum complex, which no longer has its own street frontage. Use the museum for present visitor enquiries.
Wa museum boola bardip reception telephone, not prison enquiries: 1300 134 081
Wa museum reception email: reception@museum.wa.gov.au
Opening, closure and history
Opening: 1855 — State Records Office dates transfer from the earlier gaol to this newly built facility to 1855; construction completion is separately dated 1856
Closing: 1888 — Gaol closed and remaining prisoners transferred to Fremantle Prison
1856: Gaol and courthouse construction completed
1858: Became a branch of the Convict Establishment
1863: Court function transferred to the original court building in Supreme Court Gardens
1891: Geological Museum established in the Old Perth Gaol
1895: Cells demolished for a museum zoological wing
Capacity
Capacity has not yet been independently verified.
Deaths in custody: totals and limitations
No complete facility-level series is established here for suicide, medical or natural causes, homicide, other causes, Aboriginal deaths or combined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths. Missing data does not mean zero deaths. Selected cases below, where available, are not lifetime or reporting-period totals. “Murder” is a legal conclusion and is not substituted for a source’s classification.
Photograph
Old Perth Gaol within the Western Australian Museum complex, photographed in 2021. Photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reproduced without cropping or substantive editing; the photograph does not establish current conditions.
Sources
Using this profile
Confirm visiting arrangements and current contacts with the corrections department or heritage operator. Heritage visitor contacts are not operational prison contacts. General information only, not legal advice.
This directory includes prison complexes and components and is not a complete Australian operational or historical census. Component capacities must not be added to their parent complex a second time.
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