Renewal for the Old Gaol

The curators of the Bridgetown Police Station Museum, Bridgetown Historical Society, Mary Elgar, Chairperson, Barbara Maher, Vice Chair, Lee Wittenoom, Lorie Marshall and Richard Allen together with ten members have all been working hard on a renewal project for the museum, which is located in the first Police Station and lockup on Hampton Street in Bridgetown. The building, built in 1880, is a Bridgetown heritage listed building.

The rejuvenation of the museum has culminated in a welcoming space in which visitors can learn something of the history of the indigenous people together with the colonial history, these histories are now recorded side by side.

The renewal was first sparked when Mary Elgar joined the society in 2015, and seeing the museum’s possibilities and wanting to make changes she became the Societie’s Chairperson in 2017.

As a means of raising much needed funds for the Police Station Museum, Mary wrote a book ‘A Mere Country Village’ about Bridgetown’s history and how a community was formed and grew. This publication was based on 43 oral histories that Mary gathered from present residents and other oral histories that were recorded in the 1960s, others in the 70s, these were then compiled with more recent stories about those groups that work quietly in the background, those that make a strong community, such as the Red Cross, CWA and Lions. These stories were then woven into a book celebrating the 150th anniversary of Bridgetown’s gazettal. The proceeds of the sale of this book go to Bridgetown Historical Society for their work in the Museum.

Mary enthusiastically talks on the improvements made at the Police Station Museum, “We applied for grants to make the changes to the museum and received $15,000 in grants from the State Heritage for the visual media installation and for the production of braille cards for the vision impaired visitors and Easy Read cards for visitors with low literacy skills and non-English speaking people to use, thus passing on an understanding of the history of Bridgetown.

“We have also received two grants from LotteryWest, one of $3,500 and another of $15,000 for the audio push button installation.”

In January 2020 Interpretive panels were installed in the museum. These panels tell the stories of the early settlement of Bridgetown, the interaction with the Indigenous people and their displacement from their country and traditions, and the history of policing in the town.

These panels can be found on the walls of the cells and rooms of the Police Station. Together with selected artefacts from the Bridgetown Historical Society’s collection, these form a cohesive statement of the early history of Bridgetown’s policing.

“The next stage in this journey was the installation of ‘push button’ audio and video mechanisms in September 2021, which when activated generates the voice of a Bridgetown resident telling a story from their life. These recordings have been taken from the many oral histories which are in the archives of Bridgetown Historical Society.”

Another fund-raising initiative of the Society is to hold ‘Ghost Walks’ and ‘Cemetery Walks’ encompassing school group tours and private group tours.

“The ghost walks are held in winter because it gets cold, dark and spooky early. There are also actors from the Bridgetown Repertory Club who appear as Bridgetown residents from the past, making for a wonderful and surprising night.

“Our next cemetery walk will happen on 23rd April, close to ANZAC day, on this tour we will be visiting the graves and telling the story about those who have served our country.”

One of the next major jobs for the Historical Society is to move the ‘Orchard Display’ which is in the Visitors Centre, to the display shed at the back of the Police Museum.

Bridgetown Historical Society has been the recipient of an inaugural award from the History Council of Western Australia, which was ‘For the significant contribution to the understanding of local history in Western Australia’.

Bridgetown Historical Society was also awarded the 2021 Merit Award by the Royal Western Australian Historical Society for outstanding contributions to WA history through the renovation of its museum.

The ’Police Station Museum’ is worthy of a visit, not only to witness the harshness of the conditions of the times but also to be thankful we were born into better time.

For further information you can contact the society on Mobile: 0487 592 704, Telephone : 08 9761 4236 or by email: Bridgetown history@iinet.net.au