The main gaol building, minus the yards, stands today adjacent to the Western Australian Museum in Perth.

A new site was selected by the Colonial Secretary, Charles Piesse and the Surveyor-General, John Septimus Roe[1] and reserved on a rise on what is now near the intersection of Beaufort and Francis Streets.

With the expanding population and with the importation of convicts in 1850 to provide a labour force for public works, there was a need for a facility to house inmates near the city.

The project was approved but construction took longer than expected and substantial modifications to the original design were made while work progressed.

The stone was cut from limestone cliffs in Rocky Bay near Fremantle and floated up the Swan River on barges.

[2] On Wednesday last the execution of Samuel Stanley and the aboriginal native Jacob took place a little distance from the Perth Causeway, ...

It was used briefly as the Perth courthouse before that returned to Stirling Gardens, and for a few years it had occasional use by the police and other government departments.