Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot (1851)

The decision to turn the colony into a penal settlement occurred after a good many settlers petitioned the Government to do so.

[1]: 1 Fitzgerald decided to set up convict hiring depots in areas where men had the best chance of finding employment.

The site selected was Avon location 69 and the adjacent lot R1, an area totalling 4.7 hectares (11.5 acres).

On the evening of 20 August, the party of approximately 40 ticket-of-leave holders struggled into the Military Barracks in Toodyay.

Next morning, the entire party negotiated the rising waters of the Avon River to reach their destination 0.8 kilometres (0.5 mi) upstream on the other side.

After settling in, the ticket-of-leave holders were put to work building straw huts to accommodate the expected arrival of the Pensioner Guards.

The straw or rush huts were A-framed in shape and were erected using bush poles and had thatching that reached to the ground.

[2]: 14 The straw huts, however, were only temporary accommodation as the Pensioner Guards were entitled to the offer of 1.6 hectares (4 acres) of allotments close to the depot site.

When the official survey revealed the existence of a steep hillside, the number of allotments was reduced to thirteen.

It was mid-October before they reached their destination, after which the Pensioner Guards were given the task of supervising and directing the ticket-of-leave holders under their command.

Conflict and ill feeling quickly arose between free workmen and the newly arrived ticket-of-leave holders.

In early 1852, it was decided to transfer the Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot to a new and larger site, an area of Crown land designated as Avon location 110.

Construction of the new convict hiring depot would be overseen by Lieutenant Edmund Frederick Du Cane.

[1]: 50 For the time being, the Pensioner Guards retained the use of the original depot site (in "Old Toodyay") for accommodation purposes.

In July, August and September, an average of five men, fifteen women and fourteen children were in occupation at one time.

On 19 August 1857, Avon location 69 and lot R1 were sold to John Davidson, a local settler, for the sum of 116 pounds.