19th century · 1791–1865
James Stirling
Admiral Sir James Stirling · Australia
Founder of the Swan River Colony and first Governor of Western Australia
A British naval officer, he surveyed the Swan River and through enthusiasm and persistence persuaded the British government to found a colony there, becoming the first Governor of Western Australia. On 18 June 1829 he read the proclamation founding the colony at Fremantle, and that same year founded Perth as its administrative centre.
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History · Fremantle Prison
Stirling's colony and the convicts' prison
On 18 June 1829 Captain James Stirling read the proclamation founding the Swan River Colony at Fremantle, and Perth was founded the same year. The colony lacked labour in its early years, and from the 1850s Britain began transporting convicts to Western Australia. They quarried limestone on site and built this prison with their own hands: the gatehouse was completed in 1854–1855, and the main cell block, holding up to 1,000 prisoners, has barely changed since it was built in the 1850s.
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