Completed in 1836, it is the city's oldest surviving public building and is one of two remaining examples of the work of Henry Reveley,[a] the colonial civil engineer.

In February 1836, Henry Willey Reveley, the colonial civil engineer from 1829 to 1838, prepared plans and specifications for the new building.

The building was officially opened with a Church service conducted by the Reverend John Burdett Wittenoom on Good Friday, 24 March 1837.

Prior to the construction of the Mechanics Institute and the Town Hall the Court House was the only substantial building in Perth suitable for public meetings.

The building, now referred to as the Old Court House, was called into service intermittently between 1856-1863 as an emergency immigration depot.

In 1985 the Law Society relocated its offices and the building underwent internal refurbishment to reconstruct its appearance as the Arbitration Court of 1905.

During the 1965 renovations the carved wooden coat of arms (then garishly painted and plastered, and nearly discarded) was discovered to be the original that was commissioned by Chief Justice Henry Wrenfordsley in 1880.