Charles Augustus John Symmons (1804–1887) was an official of the British government posted at the Swan River Colony, assuming a role as "protector" and later police officer in the early decades of European settlement in Southwest Australia.
Symmons was assisted by the colonist Francis Armstrong in the role of the town's constable and "native translator" and Peter Barrow, who had also been appointed in England and was posted to the eastern frontier of the settlement at York.
[4] The directives and payment of his salary were taken from funds provided by Lord Glenelg in England, in response to reports of violence presented in the British parliament, and to be implemented by the colony's governor John Hutt.
At the beginning of what would become a notorious prison system, the stated aim of the Rottenest was the education of men deemed as insubordinate to accept the newly imposed social regulations and be employed as farm labourers.
[5] His positions in the Swan River colony's civil service included the Public Works board in 1849, immigration agent in 1856, acting sheriff at Champion Bay during 1861 to 1862, and resident magistrate and justice of the peace at Fremantle in 1868.