Ticket of leave men (as convicts on assigned work duties were called) were frequently reported by their employers for various offences, particularly drunkenness, a common punishment for which was 7 to 14 days in the lock-up.

[1] These buildings appear on the left hand side of Captain Edmund Henderson’s drawing of York published in The Illustrated London News of 28 February 1857.

The lockup is basically as it exists today except for the entrance to the later large exercise yard, and the removal of some interior walls to make larger cells.

Forrest noted that the foundation stone "would serve to bring to the minds of future generations a date in the history of Western Australia when the colony had been passing through a period of great commercial and industrial activity as a result of the discovery and rapid expansion of the goldfields".

[9] The York Post Office, constructed in 1893, and the Courthouse and police station “form one of the finest building groups in the State with great vitality within harmonious unity”, according to heritage architect, Ian Molyneux.