Water Police Office and Court 

By the late 1840s both the Water Police Office and Watch House were located in The Rocks area at the Government Coxswain's Barracks (now known as Cadman's Cottage). This accommodation became inadequate and in 1851 a site on the edge of the Governor's domain was selected for a new Water Police Office and Court to be designed by Colonial Architect, Edmund Blacket.

In 1853 sandstone was quarried from nearby Bennelong Point (site of the present Sydney Opera House) and preparations for construction began. However, due to the acute shortage and high cost of suitable labour caused by the Gold Rush the building was not completed until 1856. Cases heard by the Water Police Magistrate in this court related to the workings of the Harbour Regulations Act and the Water Police Act. Despite the delays in completion, the impact of Blacket's Water Police Office upon the colony was marked.

Not only did its imposing appearance and maritime outlook create an indelible impression of law and order to those on or about the harbour, but its sandstone facade and formal layout became an important prototype for the design of other courthouses. The Water Police Office and Court continued operations until 1918 when it was closed along with the adjoining Police Court. Reflecting the changing needs of a developing city, both courthouses re-opened in 1924 as Traffic Courts, a function they maintained until their final closure in 1980.

The Water Police Office and Court is a single-storey Classical Revival structure. Based on the design of the basilicas in which the ancient Romans conducted their courts, it features a simple porch with three arches positioned slightly forward of two low flanking wings.

The porch, which now serves as the Museum's public foyer, was originally an open feature but was enclosed during subsequent use. The Waiting Room and Accountant's Office that were installed behind the side arches in 1899 by Government Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, have been removed except for their curved bow windows. However, the existence of these rooms is acknowledged by reconstructed sections of their floors.

The retention of Vernon's sensitive windows and the placement of glass doors in the centre arch make Blacket's original design intentions much more apparent, as described by Morton Herman in his book The Blackets - An Era of Australian Architecture:

Blacket intended that the sun should splash through the three arches into the depth of the portico, with a play of light and shade and a general modelling that would have been a good climax to the large flight of steps.

The courtroom interior is a classic example of austere early Victorian architecture with simple high-level windows, cedar panelled rear wall, cedar joinery and cedar Magistrate's bench and canopy providing the main features. This courtroom and the western wing are not generally open to the public but are available for inspection for venue hire by appointment.

The two rooms in the building's eastern wing are used to display the Museum's major exhibitions. These exhibitions are theme based and change regularly. The long room which is first encountered once housed clerical staff for the court while the second, and smaller, of the two rooms was originally a Magistrate's chamber and then, in later years, a small Parking Court.

The Room of Rememberance

The Room of Remembrance is dedicated to all the police who have been slain on duty in New South Wales since 1862. Although a number of watchmen and constables were brutally murdered prior to 1862, this year has been selected because it marks the establishment of the NSW Police Force.

Throughout the history of policing in NSW there have been many more police than those shown who have been classified as killed on duty. However, their deaths have occurred through other causes such as accidents, ill-health and misadventure. Whilst this display only concentrates on those police who have been deliberately slain, the Museum regards the memory of all police who have lost their lives on duty as sacred.

Police Court

Designed by prolific Colonial Architect, James Barnet, and erected between the Water Police Court and Water Police Station  in 1885-86, the Police Court reflected the need to provide additional resources to cope with the rising incidence of crime in the area and the increased volume of court work this generated. With a similar portico to the Water Police Court, Morton Herman commented in his book The Blackets - An Era of Australian Architecture that ... Erected more than thirty years after Blacket's wing, it at least did him the compliment of being in the same design as the old work.

In this case, however, the delicate curved structures installed in the side arches of the Police Court in 1899 by Government Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, as separate male and female witness rooms have been retained. While Herman's comment is true for the exterior of the courthouse, the interior of the Police Court makes no concessions to the styling of its earlier neighbour. Through its elaborate roof form, it possesses a lightness that the austere early-Victorian Blacket courtroom lacks. James Barnet was to exercise a powerful and direct influence on the character of NSW's public buildings for 30 years.

He was responsible for the building of 130 courthouses throughout suburban and country centres of NSW as well as many other major buildings in the City of Sydney including the nearby Lands Department building and the Chief Secretary's building. The Police Court has now been restored as an 1899 Court of Petty Sessions. It is not an exact recreation of this particular courtroom but instead is based on the 1856 plans for the Water Police Court and photographs of similar courts in the 1890s.

Original wooden fittings in this room are the cedar canopy, Magistrate's bench, Clerk's cubicle and Court Reporter's screen and sections of the bar (the railing separating the public from the court area). The cedar screen installed in front of the exit doors to Phillip Street to reduce the influence of external noise and weather is also original. Almost all of the movable courtroom furniture has come from the Attorney-General's Department's furniture repository including the cedar bar table which was originally from this building. Lighting is provided by electric reproduction lights based on gas fittings used in courts of the 1890s while coir matting, which was commonly used in courts to deaden the noise, has also been installed. Both the reporter's box and the prisoners' dock are reproductions and are located according to the 1856 plans.
 
The design of the dock, a term originating from the Flemish word for birdcage, is based on descriptions and etchings of the notorious Water Police Court dock which could hold as many as 15 prisoners at a time. This was necessary because there were no waiting rooms for the prisoners in the Water Police Court and so it was much easier to put them all in the dock together.

Despite the courtroom's airy appearance, it was in fact quite stifling during warmer periods. To ease the comfort of the presiding Magistrate, a hydraulic air-cooling machine was constructed and installed beneath the floor in his chamber. The machine pumped cool air through a terracotta pipe into the courtroom. The squared metal vents for this refreshing flow can be seen in the corners behind either end of the Magistrate's bench.

The Watch House Kitchen

At the eastern end of the small courtyard between the Police Court and the Water Police Station is the reconstructed sandstone wall of the original kitchen that formed a part of the Watch House complex, built in 1857-58. This room now houses the Shrine of Remembrance and cannot be accessed from the courtyard.

All police stations were required to provide cooking facilities for the constables on duty and for the preparation of rations for the prisoners. While the police required sufficient food to sustain them in a "fit state of active duty", the prisoners received the poorest quality food in very small portions.

Prisoners were only fed once a day, so that if they were brought into the Watch House in the afternoon, they would have to wait until the following morning before they received their daily ration of bread and water. This duty was often carried out by the wife of a resident policeman who was paid an allowance for cooking and cleaning services.

Water Polce Watch House (Station)

On the completion of the Water Police Office and Court in 1856, the Water Police Magistrate, Lieutenant Samuel North, complained to the Governor that the Watch House, including cells for the prisoners, intended for construction next to the court had not been built. This was causing much inconvenience, as prisoners required to appear before the court had to be marched from the old lock-up in The Rocks across the Quay to the new location.

In 1858 the Water Police Watch House or Station was duly completed using sandstone obtained from the Pyrmont area. This modest, but well proportioned Classical building is one of the few surviving buildings attributed to the Colonial Architect of the time, Alexander Dawson. It is two stories high and originally consisted of living quarters for the Water Police and their families upstairs and offices and two cells downstairs. In 1875 another two cells were added to the rear.

By the 1890s the total complex comprised a Charge Court and Summons Court with four Stipendiary Magistrates and 20 court staff, as well as a Police Station with Charge Room, offices, four cells and living quarters. Twenty-seven police processed some 50-60 remand prisoners a day making this station the busiest in the colony. Duties and cases still focused on the Harbour but increasingly extended to a broader metropolitan area with its large share of minor offences. The Rocks district in particular was rife with crime, earning for it the reputation as one of the toughest waterside areas in the world. Its maze of crooked streets and twisting passages, its countless hotels and squalid dives were a haven for vicious larrikin gangs, whores, gamblers, transients and thieves who were often conveyed to this Police Station on charges such as assault, robbery, drunkenness, vagrancy and prostitution.

In 1913 the Water Police who lived at the station were relocated to their new accommodation at Dawes Point. The station then became generally known as the Phillip Street Police Station although it still remained a part of No 13 Division (Water Police) for a few more years. By 1917 the station had become incorporated into the local No 4 Division, of which George St North Police Station was the head station, before reverting back to the Water Police Division from 1926 to 1932. In 1933 the station permanently returned to No 4 Division as its new head station and a number of alterations were made to the building including the enlargement of the Charge Room. The Phillip Street Police Station finally closed its doors in 1985 when its police strength was transferred to the newly opened Rocks Police Station.

Crime Museum

It would be an excellent demonstration room for a professor in crime ... Sprinkled along the shelves about you are all sorts of little things, the possession of any of which would get an archangel arrested in George Street.

Daily Telegraph (26 August 1910) on the Police Museum All of the weapons displayed in this room were collected by police from criminals or at the scenes of crime. Many were displayed in the first Police Museum set up in 1910, but they were not meant for public eyes. They were to instruct new constables in the ways of criminals. They formed a 'taxonomy of crime', a classification of things as part of a continuous and inevitable sequence of crime in society. The existence of crime was not questioned because there was believed to be a permanent and habitual 'criminal class'. The intention of this Crime Museum is not to recreate the 1910 version but rather to raise issues about the validity of this approach to crime and criminals today. During the occupancy of this building by the police this room was at various times the Inspector's office, the Matron's office (the female attendant for female prisoners), Sergeants' office and Interview Room.

Charge Room

When the police vacated the station in 1985, this room was much larger than it is now. The southern wall of the room that had been removed in 1933 has been rebuilt to recreate an 1890s Charge Room. The arrested person was placed in the timber dock while the processes of being charged with a criminal offence were being undertaken by station staff. Interestingly, it was the practice of the day for nearly all station functions to be performed from the one office, unlike the modern situation where the charging of criminals is kept quite separate from the public foyer area.

Corridor of Cells

Although grim and forbidding, these cells were not where people lived but rather where they were held temporarily awaiting court appearance, transportation to gaol or release. Depending on the hour and the day of the person's placement in custody, their stay could be quite brief or extend to a number of days (eg over the weekend). The first indication of the existence of a padded lunatic cell in this station occurred in 1889 when a requisition was made for padding. It was also the practice for female prisoners to be kept separate from the males and for sick or diseased prisoners to be isolated in a hospital cell. This meant that the remaining cell for prisoners who did not fall into one of these categories was likely to be extremely crowded and mixed in its criminality.

In much later years, when the cells were no longer required for the custody of prisoners, they were used as storage rooms and as locker rooms for the police. The exercise yard provided for prisoners is located behind the back wall of the cells but is not accessible to visitors.

The first cell has been recreated to its 1890s character and if one imagines the dark, the cold, the filth, the overcrowding, the vermin and the smell, along with the meagre rations provided, it is clear that the duty of care to prisoners was far lower than what is acceptable today.

The second, and largest, cell delivers an entirely different experience as a unique setting for a variety of audio-visual presentations that explore aspects of law, policing and crime in NSW. Similarly, the two remaining cells are also used for themed exhibits and displays.

Famous People and Events

Andrew George Scott Alias Captain Moonlight

In early December 1870, Andrew George Scott appeared in the Water Police Court charged with obtaining goods and money by means of false pretences from Nicholas McKenzie, William Foy, Charles Kelsey and others, as well as issuing valueless cheques to many other people.

With one such cheque for £150 he had bought a yacht, the Why Not, in which he intended to sail to Fiji with a woman he had met. However, he was arrested by Detective Bowden and other police before he could clear the harbour. Scott was committed by the Magistrate for trial at the Sydney Court of Quarter Sessions where he was convicted and sentenced on 21 December 1870 to 18 months hard labour at Maitland Gaol. After serving his time, Scott was extradited to Victoria and convicted of having committed a bank robbery at Egerton, near Ballarat, in 1869 while serving as a lay preacher in that town. Following his release from Melbourne's Pentridge Gaol in 1879, Scott resurrected the name he had used in the Egerton robbery, Captain Moonlite. He recruited a gang of five young impressionable men and, in imitation of the Kelly Gang, began a rampage of bushranging. He was finally caught at Wantabadgery, near Gundagai, on 17 November 1879 after a fierce gun battle with police which took the lives of two of his gang and a policeman, Constable Edward Webb-Bowen. Scott and one of his gang, Thomas Rogan, were sentenced to death for the policeman's murder, and they were both hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol on 20 January 1880.

The Bridge Street Affray

In the early hours of 2 February 1894, the Police Station's charge room and cells echoed with the voices of Charles Montgomery and Thomas Williams. Charged with Malicious Wounding with Intent to Murder and other felonies, their violent actions that morning led directly to their own executions and to all Metropolitan police being permanently issued with firearms.

Disturbed by police while trying to break open a safe in the Union Steamship Company Office in Bridge Street, Montgomery and Williams and a third unidentified man tried to escape on foot. As they ran, a number of police attempted to intercept them but on each occasion they were battered and bashed about the head and arms with long iron bars the offenders were carrying. At the intersection of Bridge and Phillip Streets, the three men decided to split up. One continued east along Bridge Street and was never found, while Montgomery and Williams decided to run down Phillip Street towards the harbour. Being strangers to Sydney, they did not realise that they were in fact running towards the Water Police Station.

Several police in the street attempted to apprehend them but they too were beaten to the ground with savage blows. More police poured out of the station and after a long and violent struggle, Montgomery and Williams were finally overpowered and carried back to the Police Station.

The incident received wide publicity and generated much sympathy for the injured police. Previously only police in rural districts had been routinely armed, but after the Inspector General of Police, Mr Fosbery, petitioned Parliament, legislation was immediately passed authorising all members of the NSW Police to be issued with firearms to "prevent the escape of felons and to place them on an equal footing with armed criminals and malefactors".

A First for Fingerprints

When petty thief, Henry Hunter, broke into the residence of Alfred Macartney Hemsley at 69 Macleay Street, Potts Point, in December 1903, little did he realise that he would soon become the first person in New South Wales to be identified by fingerprints in a criminal court.

Hunter, alias John Miller, was initially arrested by police on December 23 for being in an enclosed area at 71 Macleay Street, Potts Point, for an unlawful purpose. His movements had been heard next door by Alfred Hemsley who alerted the police. The following morning Hemsley noticed that an upstairs window of his house had been interfered with and that there were some recent fingerprints in the dust on the window sash. The police were recalled and the pieces of wood containing the fingerprints were cut out of the sash by a carpenter. On December 29, Senior Constable Wilson of Darlinghurst Police charged Hunter with Breaking and Entering Hemsley's Dwelling House with Intent to Commit a Felony Therein. Hunter, who was already in custody on the previous charge, seemed surprised. Wilson informed Hunter that some fingerprints had been found in the house and that he was going to endeavour to prove that they were his.

Hunter appeared in the Water Police Court before the Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr L. Donaldson. Fingerprint experts, Senior Sergeant Walter Childs (who in 1930 became Commissioner of Police) and Ernest Sloane, identified the fingerprints on the window sash with prints taken from the accused's fingers. Hunter was committed for trial and on 11 February 1904 he appeared before the Sydney Court of Quarter Sessions. Faced with such damning physical evidence he pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to three years penal servitude.

The Breelong Blacks 

The Magistrates who presided over the Water Police Court and Police Court were considered the elite in their field for knowledge, salary and status. This meant that at certain times of emergency they were called upon to exercise judicial authority outside their prescribed area.

One such instance occurred on 29 September 1900 when the warrant for the arrest of part-aboriginal brothers, Jimmy and Joe Governor, was issued here for the murder of Helen Josephine Kerz at Breelong. The Governor brothers, who were also responsible for the brutal murders of eight other men, women and children, were the last declared outlaws in New South Wales history.

Joe Governor was eventually shot dead by a grazier near Singleton on 31 October 1900 while his brother Jimmy was captured, convicted and then hanged for murder at Darlinghurst Gaol on 18 January 1901.

The Continuing History

Over the many years of its official occupancy, this complex dealt with innumerable occurrences. Whilst a few became celebrated, the vast majority remained of concern only to those involved. However, even the simplest matter could embroil a whole range of people - from the victim, witnesses, offender and police to the lawyers, clerks, reporters and Magistrate.

An exploration of the Museum's passageways soon reveals some of these people - their anonymous faces peering out, their names carved deeply in sandstone walls, their meticulous handwriting preserved on endless forms. Yet the site also speaks of a world beyond itself, for the story of these buildings reflects the growth of Sydney from bustling port to modern metropolis.

Today the Justice and Police Museum explores the continuing history of law, policing and crime throughout the whole of New South Wales with its displays and education programs. These may not relate to this site but rather to a particular historical episode, general theme or contemporary issue. In this way, although the original functions of these buildings have ceased, the history they contain is preserved and continues to grow.