When Justice Goes Wrong: John Button and Darryl Beamish
In the early 1960s two young Perth men, John Button and Darryl Beamish, were wrongfully found guilty of crimes committed by notorious serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke. This exhibition examines their long path to exoneration in the early 2000s, specifically the evidence that proved instrumental for each man in overturning the conviction that has left lifelong psychological scars.
Watch footage of pedestrian crash testing, carried out in Perth in February 2000, by crash test specialist William ‘Rusty’ Haight, that was to provide compelling and convincing evidence of John Button’s innocence.
Read documents from Darryl Beamish’s case file, generously loaned by the Supreme Court of Western Australia, including a copy of the Reverend Jenkins’ statement of Eric Edgar Cooke’s final words before he was hanged in 1964, which were to confess to the crimes Beamish and Button had been incarcerated for.
Please click image for full size view
Please click image for full size view
What’s on
The Museum hosts a range of public programmes throughout the year. These events aim to foster conversations about Western Australian legal, political and social histories as well develop the Museum as a place of significance for the community.
Explore past school holiday programmes at the Old Court House Museum. School students can engage in these fun activities from home – read more below!
Whodunnit? Did they do it? Do what?
Can you describe a suspect and create an identikit picture? Work with a partner and see whose drawing most resembles the suspect’s mug shot.
Take turns to describe your suspect, use the tip sheet provided and prompt questions to make sure you gather as much information as possible.
Please note: children will be working with mug shots of real West Australian men and women taken in the 1920s and 1930s.
Click here to access the tip sheet | Click here to access mugshots
Proudly sponsored by the City of Perth
Building The Old Court House!
Discover the architectural details of Perth’s oldest surviving building! Decorate and create your own Old Court House!
Click here for the Old Court House cutout activity (5-12 years) | Click here for the Old Court House cutout activity (13+ years)
Proudly sponsored by:
Capital Punishment in 1860s Western Australia The Hangman’s Heyday
The exhibition explores why legal executions spiked in 1860s WA, with 42 individuals executed by hanging, double the number of any other decade. On display are significant items from the museum’s collection, including notebooks complied by the first Chief Justice of Western Australia, Sir Archibald Paull Burt, at early criminal trial sittings of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Two trials, held at the Old Court House, are examined to illustrate how circumstances in the Swan River Colony during the 1860s contributed to the spike in legal executions.
Please click image for full size view
Please click image for full size view
Please click image for full size view
Open House Perth
Saturday, 16 November – Sunday, 17 November 2019 | 10.00am to 5.00pm
The Old Court House Law Museum, Stirling Gardens, Perth
For more information, go to openhouseperth.com
The Old Court House Law Museum is excited to be part of the 2019 Open House Perth weekend line up!
Come and check out Perth’s oldest building nestled at the back of Stirling Gardens. The Old Court House was designed by Henry W Reveley, the Civil Engineer who drew the plans for all the early public buildings in Perth. The Old Court House has served many purposes since opening its doors in 1836 and continues to be an active community asset that sheds light into Perth’s social history.
Curator, Greg Sikich and the team of Museum volunteers will be on site all weekend to engage in conversation about the architectural details of this iconic heritage building. Rarely seen art works by Amy Heap and Hubert Smeed from the Museum Collection will also be on display to celebrate the building’s iconic architecture.
Hands on activities, such as our popular ‘Build the Old Court House’ craft activity and our ‘Guilty or Not Guilty’ court scene dress up will be up and running for some building inspired fun.
Proudly sponsored by
The Life and Music of Dom Rosendo Salvado
Wednesday, 15 May 2019 | 5.00pm – 7.00pm | Recommended 18+ | Bookings essential here via Eventbrite
$25.00 per person; tickets non refundable
The New Norcia mission was founded in March 1846. By late April, the community had exhausted their provisions and was at risk of starvation.
The colourful Spanish missionary Dom Rosendo Salvado and an Aboriginal companion walked 130 kilometres from the Victoria Plains to Perth to speak to Bishop Brady about their desperate situation. It was decided that a piano recital would be held at the Old Court House to raise money and on the evening of 1 May 1846, Salvado gave a three hour piano recital to a packed audience.
Join us at the Old Court House Law Museum for an evening of music, drinks and canapés as Father Robert Nixon, who currently resides at New Norcia, gives his own recital of Salvado’s music and chats about his remarkable life and achievements. The Museum will also be hosting a new temporary exhibition showcasing many rare and interesting objects related to Salvado and his life; these are on loan from New Norcia.
Fr. Robert Nixon is a Catholic priest, pianist, composer and monk of the Order of St. Benedict. He joined the Benedictine Community of New Norcia in 2013, where he serves as organist, liturgy co-ordinator and Director of the Institute for Benedictine Studies. In previous recitals, he has presented the complete keyboard works of Chopin, Brahms, J.P. Rameau and J.S. Bach. He was awarded his Fellowship of Trinity College, London, for harpsichord performance, and Fellowship of the London College of Music for research on the musical writings of the Venerable Bede.
Heritage Perth Weekend
Friday 17, April – Sunday 19, April 2019 | 9.00am – 4.00pm
The Old Court House Law Museum, Stirling Gardens, Perth
Friday 17, April
The Old Court House Law Museum is kicking off the Heritage Perth weekend with hands on activities! Join us for our popular ‘Build the Old Court House’ craft activity and our ‘Guilty or Not Guilty’ court scene dress up activity.
Saturday 18, April and Sunday 19, April
The Old Court House Law Museum is excited to be part of the Heritage Perth Weekend 2020, where we will be launching our new temporary exhibition, Chamber of Secrets: The Unseen Collection.
The Old Court House has served many purposes since opening its doors in 1836 and continues to be an active community asset that sheds light into Perth’s social history. As custodians of a unique donated collection, learn about how we care for a range of eclectic objects and stay tuned as we move into our purpose fitted collection space!
Be sure to stop by the Old Court House Law Museum and check out free displays that provoke curiosity and challenge understandings about the legal, political and social histories of Western Australia. We guarantee that you will learn something new!
Open Day at the Old Court House Law Museum
Sunday, 21 October 2018 | 11.30am – 4.00pm | Free Entry
The Law Society of Western Australia’s Old Court House Law Museum is the only law museum in Western Australia and one of only a handful worldwide. Housed in the Old Court House, the oldest building in the City of Perth, the Museum promotes understanding of the law, legal issues and the legal profession in Western Australia and preserves that history and cultural material for present and future generations.
The Museum encourages visitors to reflect on changing community values; to challenge beliefs about law and the interface between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal law and ultimately consider our relationship to individual and collective behaviour, society and ethics.
We encourage visitors to take part in the Museum’s Open Day and learn more about this hidden treasure.
See our newest exhibition From Law to War to Peace, which coincides with the centenary of the First World War armistice.
Heritage Conversation
From Law to War to Peace
Sunday, 21 October 2018 | 10.00am – 11.00am
Entry is free but bookings essential via heritageperth.com.au from 5 October
A 1913 photo featuring a number of prominent Western Australian lawyers recently found in the Old Court House Law Museum collection inspired the Armistice exhibition to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War One. Some of the individuals in the photo were unable to contribute to the war effort, some returned after active service and some never returned.
In this Heritage Conversation event the Museum Curator, Julianne Mackay, and military historian Robert Mitchell will tell the stories of some of the individuals in the photograph, both before, during and after their wartime experiences.
Proudly supported by
My Culture, My Story; Aboriginal Women Leaders in Law
On Friday, 18 May 2018, as part of the Law Society’s programme of events for Law Week, the Old Court House Law Museum hosted a panel discussion led by Deanne Fitzgerald, Senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisor at the Western Australian Museum. Deanne talked with a panel of Aboriginal women leaders in law, including Kelsi Forrest, Ashleigh Lindsay, Kate George and Sue Gordon, about their life and career experiences. Watch the videos below to find out more.