The Oldest Building in Perth
Small Court House. Big Stories.
Step through time into the oldest building in Perth city, the 1836 Court House.

Purpose-built as the Swan River Colony’s legal hub, the Court House also quickly became the central venue for early colonial social and civic life.

The 1836 building, located on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar, is a clear manifestation of the doctrine of terra nullius upon which the colony was founded. It symbolises the imposition of the British legal system upon Aboriginal peoples who practiced, and continue to practice, their own established systems of law.

Situated within the building that first amalgamated the colony’s judicial system, the Old Court House Law Museum (the Museum) is uniquely positioned to interrogate Western Australia’s legal and social history and to engage with the Western Australian legal profession and courts to reflect on the rule of law in Western Australia, past and present.

The Museum has a role in the global discussion on the relationship of colonialism to the rule of law and its contribution to systemic discrimination, the impacts of which are still evident today.