Establishing a Panoptic Prison: An Examination of Fremantle Gaol, 1831-1841

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Despite the Swan River Colony (1829) of Western Australia being founded as the first, experimental, and free colony on the Australian continent, crime and punishment were intertwined with colonisation. It can be demonstrated that Jeremy Bentham’s writings on punishment and reform, specifically through the panopticon, had a significant influence on the punishment of prisoners in the Swan River Colony. Most notably, this occurred through the construction of Fremantle Gaol (1831). Indeed, in the emerging port town of Fremantle, the jail was designed by Henry Willey Reveley, a known associate of Bentham, and it incorporates crucial elements of the panopticon into its architecture and operations. Whilst it should be noted that the prison does not conform to the entirety of the panopticon design, it can be viewed as a practical response to the model in a colonial setting with limited resources. Deviations from the methods of discipline and punishment outlined by Bentham through the panopticon and other writings are attributable to the increased need for the perception of control over a disgruntled settler population who felt that they had been misled regarding the potential of the colony, and an Indigenous population who sought to defend their homeland against invasion. Thus, the jail provides an interesting insight into the state of crime, society and penal trends that emerged in the formative years of the Swan River Colony between 1831-1841. Through analysis of the surviving records, this paper will examine Fremantle Gaol as an example of Bentham’s panopticon, in particular how its architecture and operations mirrored the model.