The Prison Collection holds approximately 5,000 objects including artefacts, artworks, films and furniture, plus over 2,000 photographs. All items in the collection are of historical significance to Fremantle Prison. It is a unique resource that is of great historical and cultural value, particularly in relation to convictism, prison life, penology and Australian history. Collection material ranges from the 1850s to recent times, from convict artefacts including leg irons and birches, through to contemporary objects such as prison uniforms and dining utensils.
The collection is featured in the permanent displays in the Visitor Centre and Main Cell Block, as well as being presented in temporary exhibitions in the Prison Gallery.
The object collection began in earnest in 1979. Retired Senior Prison officer Alex Stewart opened No. 16 The Terrace as the Fremantle Prison Museum to house historic objects acquired during previous years. The Museum operated from these premises until 1992.
Materials for the collection come from numerous sources, notably:
- The former Fremantle Prison Museum
- Donations from the public
- Items left on site by the State prison authorities when the Prison closed
- Objects found on site during current daily operations
- Objects recovered from archaeological digs
- Oral histories
More unusual objects include recreation items such as tennis balls and plastic racquets. Tennis balls were a means of smuggling messages, drugs and other small items between Divisional yards and into the Prison from the outside. Much of the Prisoners’ time was spent in the recreation yards and in addition to playing tennis; prisoners could socialise, play board and card games, exercise on the gym equipment or watch television in later years. The collection includes gym equipment, furniture, building materials, furniture from cells such as desks, tables, stools, bedside cabinets and machinery from the prison workshops.
Prior to the Prison’s closure prisoners were granted permission to create artworks on cell and exercise yard walls. Hence there is a considerable amount of contemporary art and graffiti, particularly some outstanding indigenous wall murals by artists such as Peter Irwin Cameron, Greg Quartermaine, Les Quartermaine and G.O. Woods. The frescoes drawn by James Walsh on a cell’s walls are the only known artworks by a convict in the Prison.
Several archaeological digs were carried out after the Prison closed in 1991. The largest dig was in 1993 when the basement area at the northern end of the Main Cell Block was excavated. A large quantity of material was recovered, much of it being accessioned into the collection. <more>