Kelmscott was one of the earliest proclaimed locations in the Swan River Colony on 6th July 1830. It was named after Kelmscott in Oxfordshire, England, the birthplace of Archdeacon Thomas Hobbes Scott. Scott had been returning to England from New South Wales aboard HMS Success, when he was stranded at the Swan River settlement after the ship struck a reef off Fremantle in November 1829. With Christmas only three weeks away, he set to work to build a church with the help of the settlers and the soldiers of the 63rd Regiment. The church, built partly of wood, with rushes filling up the sides, and appropriately known as the ‘rush church’ came into being. It was in this church that Scott conducted baptisms for 28 children and the first marriage in Perth. Scott was relieved of his temporary assignment by John Burdett Wittenoom, Colonial Chaplain, who arrived in the Colony at the end of January 1830.

Land at Kelmscott

Ensign Dale’s exploration of the Canning River June 1829 was positive, if not enthusiastic: Having traversed the country from Cockburn Sound to the Darling Mountains, and followed, with little interruption, the course of the Canning River from near the source to the mouth, the general impression resulting from a minute observation as a hurried journey would permit, is, that with trifling exceptions, the soil above the salt water is of a quality suited for all the purposes of agriculture.

The unlikely entrepreneur Thomas Peel’s potential 250,000 acre grant was dependent upon him landing an initial 400 emigrants to the Colony by 1st November 1829. Lieutenant Governor Stirling, under considerable pressure to satisfy the demands of other colonists arriving, looked to the horizon, reckoned Peel was nowhere in sight, and quickly made another exploratory dash up the Canning River, and excised much of the land from Peel’s original grant (shown right in yellow). Peel arrived six weeks late – too late – as Stirling was busy giving it to newcomers and in January 1830, that included the first of the Kelmscott land. Two of the early grants were of 500 acres each to Charles H Wright and John Adams, both marked on the 1830 Plan mentioned below. Wright left for Van Diemen’s Land on Thistle in 1833; Adams left in 1831 (Eagle) but returned to acquire 8000 acres in the Canning district in 1858 [Carden:7].

Meanwhile, John Atkinson had arrived in the Colony on Medina on 6th July 1830 with his wife, three children and Samuel Derval, a servant. With ‘credentials’ as an architect, surveyor, engineer and former soldier, he was appointed to survey Kelmscott. The date of Atkinson’s arrival and Kelmscott’s proclamation as a town was not a happy coincidence!

The first plan (one could hardly call it a survey) extant for Kelmscott was Atkinson’s, drawn in late 1830. It was deficient in many respects and since most of his work was drawn in pencil, very difficult to interpret. Clearly Atkinson’s work had failed to impress, leading to this comment (left) later written on the Plan Itself. Ultimately there were squabbles about payment for the work which Atkinson failed to complete nor produce in a timely fashion.

One of the bizarre features of the Atkinson Plan gives us the names of his family members: Sarah (wife) Sarah Emma and Eliza (daughters) and John Frederick (son). These Canning River ‘streams’ were named on the Plan, together with streams named for two early settlers marked as ‘Wright’s Stream’ (Charles H Wright), ‘Adam’s Stream’ (John Adams) and the Government Resident ‘Ellis’s Stream’. Each stream name was written in ink. Another feature, boldly misspelt in ink, was ‘Govenor Sterlings Mount’. There is no record of Governor Sterlings Mount (or variations of spelling) in Landgate’s Geographic Names database.  Pale town lots were drawn in pencil, the occupier’s names barely legible [Cons 3868 Item 222 & 225].

Town lots 1 to 72 marked on the Plan followed the course of the river (or Atkinson’s version of the river), those with names are difficult to read. Four lots numbered 9-12 are marked T Middleton; three lots 14-16 M A Bolger; lot 22 T T Ellis; lot 24 Ed Molony [sic] and G Massell, lot 25 P Corrigan and P Hefferman [sic] all soldiers; lot 26 Barracks with two structures thereon and the last lot to bear a name; then all the way to lot 72 none of the lots are marked with names.

Atkinson and his family left for Van Diemen’s Land in January 1831 on Eagle. On the same voyage were John Adams and his family and a Mrs Boalger [sic] and family – presumably T T Ellis’s sister and her family.

Twenty-four out of 72 Kelmscott town lots were listed in 1839 [Ogle:Appendix xlii] owned by only a dozen people. Very few were occupying the lots – some, like T T Ellis, listed with four lots, was deceased! Others were living in Perth or another colony. The land was difficult to work, the Canning River unnavigable most of the year, and isolation made labour difficult to acquire. The Government resumed most of the land in 1844 for non-performance of assignment conditions.

Military Manoeuvres

At this point I will try to give a picture of the military strength in the Kelmscott/Canning district. Records relating to this district began in 1830 and continued to 1843. War Office Monthly Returns (WO17) for distribution of troops did not begin until September 1837, but these returns, the Colonial Secretary’s Office records and the War Office (WO12) musters and pay lists prior to 1837, all indicate an average of five or six ‘other rank’ soldiers on post each month – albeit not always the same soldiers, of course. Prior to 1837 the number of troops was described as being posted to ‘Kelmscott’ but thereafter ‘Canning’. But it was in the same general district along the Canning River and initially researchers assumed the military post was on the same site.  However, that may not be the case. 

On one of my earlier research sprees, I inadvertently discovered more than one mention of a ‘Yeomanry Guard’ or ‘Yeomanry Cavalry’ being raised in the early days of the Swan River Colony. I was drawn to the words of Lieutenant Governor James Stirling’s Proclamation of 18th June 1829: And whereas the Safety of the Territory from Invasion and from the Attack of hostile Native Tribes may require the Establishment of a Militia Force which on emergency may be depended on to assist His Majesty’s Regular Troops in the Defence of the Lives and Property of the Inhabitants etc. Thus, the formation of such a ‘militia-type’ unit as the Yeomanry Cavalry was legally possible, I had never heard that it had happened, although more than one proposal would be forthcoming – the first by T T Ellis, a settler and Government Resident.

Theophilus Thomas Ellis was a former lieutenant in the 14th Regiment of Light Dragoons, a veteran of the Napoleonic and Peninsula Wars where he was severely wounded at Talvera in July 1809.  He retired his commission on 28th July 1812; in other words, a cavalryman through and through. He was granted a commission at the rank of Captain in the 1st Royal Surrey Militia by the Lord Lieutenant of the County.  He arrived in the Colony on James in May 1830 with his sister and her family, and was appointed Government Resident at Kelmscott in September of that year. In December 1831 Ellis wrote to the Colonial Secretary offering the names of ten men (including himself and a number of other retired military men) who were willing to serve in a unit of the Yeomanry Cavalry in the Kelmscott/Canning district [CSO 36-19-21]. One of the ten, a former soldier Peter Pegus, tried again to raise a troop in May 1833 and was similarly disappointed.

Ellis was appointed Superintendent of Native Tribes in 1833. On 15th July 1834, with the rank of Superintendent, Ellis became the lead officer in the Mounted Police Corps raised by Governor Stirling, making Ellis (arguably) the first police officer in Western Australia – and the first to die in its service at the ill-fated incident at Pinjarra on 28th October 1834. Ellis died on 12th November after falling from his horse resulting in concussion and prolonged coma.

The ‘Three Rs’

Both settlers and the natives understood, and practiced, the concept of Revenge, Reprisal and Retaliation. Cultural differences and misunderstandings of the rule of law brought about some sad consequences. For example, in the Canning District, the theft of poultry would be avenged by the beating of an elderly aboriginal at the hands of T T Ellis – albeit a punishment without trial. The reprisal in October 1830 would be the spearing of a white settler John Randal Phillips – punishment for disrespecting and harming an elder. In the event, they got the wrong man; Phillips had previously treated the natives with kindness, Ellis not so much. Phillips left the Swan River area in about 1848 for Albany and died there in December 1852 [Eric:676]. More of him later.

Captain Frederick C Irwin wrote a despatch to Major General Lord Fitzroy Somerset (later Lord Raglan) on 8th January 1831 explaining, On a report of this occurrence reaching Perth, I detached on the 7th Novr at the requisition of the Lieutenant Governor an officer and seven rank and file to patrol in conjunction with the settlers both banks of the Canning. Irwin went on to write, For the protection of this district, the detachment stated in the margin has been posted at Kelmscott, where the River issues from the Hills, and where a Town has been marked out, a Barrack is now erecting there for the Detachment.

The Kelmscott Barracks

We know from Irwin’s despatches that four privates were sent to Kelmscott on 7th November 1830. We also know from Atkinson’s 1830 Plan that those four soldiers were occupying town lots 24 and 25 – presumably in tents, and that the Barracks with structures marked were on lot 26. These same four men were engaged in the building of the Barracks and once built, occupied them: Privates Corrigan and Hefron with families [Carter:18]. I am unable to ascertain whether these soldiers built a house for T T Ellis – as a Government Resident one would expect a dwelling. The cost of building the Barracks was £25 10s. [Carden:14].

Two stand-out incidents occurred during the 63rd’s time in Kelmscott. In June 1832, the unarmed William Gaze was working on his property when about 20 hostile aborigines appeared – among them Yagan – who speared Gaze, resulting in his death. This was the incident which ‘outlawed’ Yagan who evaded capture for several months. When apprehended and charged, he was confined on Carnac Island for a short time until he again escaped. The next incident in November 1832 was the spearing of Margaret Dobbins whose husband Corporal James Dobbins, was at the time on duty at Kelmscott Barracks [WO12-9264-222]. Mrs Dobbins, recovered from her injury, but the incident hardened the attitude of even the most charitable of the settlers as she is thought to have been the first white woman to be attacked by the natives. They became more fearful and the cycle of reprisals continued as the fight for scarce resources by both sides escalated.

The 21st Regiment detachment relieved the 63rd in the Colony in September 1833. These Redcoats experienced the worst of the racial conflict that was seen all over the Colony, and of course included the incidents in the Murray River area where T T Ellis died in 1834. At this time there were 130 troops of this regiment in the Colony (a further 21 would arrive later). Of this complement only about a dozen were based in Perth HQ – all others were scattered around the many outposts of the Colony. As one can see (left) within a month of arrival, one sergeant and eight rank and file were stationed at Kelmscott specifically and no soldiers at Canning.

A number of fires were reported in Kelmscott in 1838 – all allegedly started by natives: A very good house just up by the Adams’s at the Creek; a good house just up by James Day; a good house and barn just up by the Middleton’s at Kelmscott; a house and out-buildings of Captain Ellice’s [sic]; a house and out-buildings of Mr. Wright’s; a small house of Captain Bannister’s; a small house of Serjeant Barron’s [Perth Gazette July 1838].

The Kelmscott Barracks was burnt down in June 1838. The 21st Regiment troops on detachment at the Kelmscott/Canning district at the time of the fire were: Corporal Julius Delmage and Privates Thomas Ames, Michael Connor, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Frank Mullone. Within four months, Ames would be court martialled for striking an officer and sentenced to seven year’s transportation to VDL. John Randal Phillips, then Canning Government Resident, reported the fire to the Colonial Secretary on 4th July indicating that, the natives have destroyed the barracks at Kelmscott. It having been a shingled building they must have had some trouble in burning them during the present wet season [Carter:25]. I doubt the Kelmscott barracks were ever rebuilt given that the WO17 distribution of troops shows that Canning had five rank and file soldiers on station from September 1837. Unfortunately the names do not appear in the corresponding Musters & Pay Lists for that month [WO12-3806-171 to 193]. The lack of specifics may suggest there was an overlap in activity between Kelmscott and Canning posts.

The Canning Barracks

The probable location of the Canning Barracks has only recently come to light [April 2026]. No structure on the ground is shown on Canning plans until J W Gregory’s Plan of September 1842 [Canning Cons-3869-053]. The 1842 Gregory Plan shows landholders and acreages dating back to 1829 as well as other markings suggesting roads and railways constructed much later than 1842.

The Barracks has been marked on the plan at the boundary between the original selection granted to Lieutenant George Morritt R.N. (Challenger) on Location 11 of 1280 acres, and his neighbour Lieutenant Richard Dawson R.N. (Sulphur) on Location 12 also of 1280 acres. They were among other land selections on both sides of the river in the Canning district excised by Lieutenant Governor Stirling from Thomas Peel’s grant when it was apparent Peel would not meet his contracted timing. 

Ensign Robert Dale and J S Roe laid out the Canning locations for selection. Other would-be settlers were Peter Parker Smith (1), William Owen (9), A H Gilbert (13), John Okey Davis (16), Thomas Bannister (17), Peter Pegus (18),  Thomas Hester (21). All these grants were approved in November 1829 for varying acreages. Some will be familiar as signatories to a request for the formation of the Yeoman Cavalry of 1831 and 1833. Most were former British Army or Royal Navy officers.

Canning district was covered in Commandant Irwin’s despatch to Lord Somerset when the seven 63^rd troops were sent out on patrol in November after the October 1830 assault on John Randal Phillips; three soldiers to Canning, four to Kelmscott, triggering the erection of the Kelmscott Barracks (see above).

Let us return to settler John Randal Phillips (398 acres Loc. 14a]  and his link to Major William Nairn [1280 acres Loc. 13].  Both men’s properties are marked on the Gregory Plan of 1842 but neither appear as original November 1829 Canning grants. Phillips did not arrive in the Colony until February 1830 and Nairn not until about 1831 from VDL. Both men initially selected large grants but the array of conflicting records and plans does not really explain the outcome of their holdings.  But I am writing of soldiers, not settlers, and my sources below will lead you to the conflict in land records and published texts if you have the patience to follow.

Phillips established ‘Maddington Homestead’ and ‘Stoke Farm’ in Canning from 1830 and was a successful farmer.  Major Nairn acquired A H Gilbert’s selection of Loc. 13 transferred when Gilbert did not take up the land, preferring to leave for India on the ship he arrived on – Captain Fremantle’s Challenger.

It appears that in 1833 Nairn acquired Phillips’ Maddington property in 1833 [inHerit Place #01132], despite becoming a travelling man from Swan River to VDL and India.  The Major was away from Canning in March 1834 when Phillips wrote a letter to Peter Brown, Colonial Secretary, on behalf of himself, John Okey Davis (Loc. 16) and Nairn. It suggests that Phillips was working his own Stokes Farm and looking after Nairn’s interests on the neighbouring property:  We, the undersigned, do request you will be pleased, to represent to his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, the risk and danger our flocks and herds are in at present owing to the great influx of Natives to this immediate neighbourhood, and as flour becomes more scarce they become more clamorous for bread and will not quit our properties without their wants being supplied. And request his Honor will be pleased to allow Mr Norcott, one of the Superintendents of the Natives, and can make himself understood by them, to be stationed in this neighbourhood until they leave our grazing district. During the last week the Native Munday, has broken into Mr Middleton’s house at Kelmscott, and Mr Yule’s Shepherd’s house at the Rapids and stolen provisions [Cons 36-item 031-obj 168].

The response from the Colonial Secretary was that Mr Norcott was not available.  However, there was an offer of moving two soldiers from Kelmscott who would, most probably be able to deter the natives from committing further outrages by constant patrolling under the direction of Captain Pegus whose duty it is understood to embrace the Canning River. The response went on to read, With this view of the case I enclose for you an order for the immediate removal of the men to such convenient habitation as you may be able to procure for them free of charge into shape of rent. [CSO/49/06 Letter Book entry #904].

This is possibly one of the first records suggesting that soldiers would be sent from Kelmscott to Canning to look out for the interests of settlers. By this time soldiers of the 21^st Regiment were at Kelmscott but the names of the soldiers who were detached to Canning are not recorded.   It is interpreted [Gosnells Story p.42] as two or three soldiers in a small hut on the Lower Canning somewhere between ‘Maddington Park’ [Loc. 13/14 Nairn and Phillips] and ‘The Rapids’ [Loc. 8/9 T N Yule]. Possibly the structure shown on the boundary of Loc.12/13 on Gregory’s Plan.

By all accounts 1838 was a very troublesome year for theft of stock and house robberies, as well as fires mentioned above at Kelmscott. It would not be surprising that the monthly return for the distribution of 21st troops in October 1838, shows that 12 men were in Canning. However, the Musters & Pay Lists show only six men: Corporal Julius Delmage, Privates John Clifford, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Patrick Hill, Thomas Rutherford and James Somerville [WO12-3807, folios 219 to 223]. It was therefore probably an overstatement by clerical error on the monthly return [WO17-1234-142].

If 1838 was a bad year, 1839 was worse. On 16th July 1839 the 12-year old John Burtenshaw aka Cox, an employee of John R Phillips, was killed by a native or natives who were not immediately apprehended. A ‘posse’ of Justices of the Peace from Upper Swan (G F Moore), Mahogany Creek (T N Yule), York (R H Bland), Canning (J R Phillips) and Murray River (F C Singleton) each with ‘parties’ so that the country could be intersected from various points. Whether or not the ‘parties’ led by the JPs were comprised of soldiers, settlers, or both, is not clear. However, Lieutenant Thomas B. Mortimer who had been in the Colony only two years, was commanding a ‘party’ from Kelmscott (which begs a question mark, being a year after the barracks burnt down).

It would be two years before the offender was caught, charged and brought to trial. Mendik (Mendic) was captured and received at the Fremantle Gaol (Round House) on 10th September 1841. At the Quarter Sessions on 1st October he was found guilty and the death penalty imposed. He was the only man to be hanged at Canning which had been the site of the crime. The 51st Regiment would have been involved in the escort of the prisoner from Fremantle to Canning, as by the time of the trial, the 21st had left the Colony, to be relieved in mid-1840 by 51st troops. 

From a list of over 70 officers and men who died while serving in Western Australia over a period of 42 years, only one died in Kelmscott (and none in Canning). Private #441 William Williams (21st) died on 3rd July 1835, cause of death not recorded in the Army’s records.

In summary, the official military presence at the two locations in the Kelmscott/Canning district was from November 1830, with a detachment of 63rd Regiment troops, followed in October 1833 by 21st Regiment troops, and finally in July 1840, 51st Regiment troops, the last of which left the Canning post in March 1843. The withdrawal of the detachment from the Canning post was recorded in General Orders on 3rd March 1843, signed by Major & Commandant F C Irwin [WO17-288-17].

The Lost Kelmscott Barracks

This is not the end of the Kelmscott Barracks story; but as you will see, there really is no end to it! To continue…

Nearly five years after his death, Captain Theophilus T Ellis came back to haunt me when I discovered a government notice relating to a public auction of the 2746 acres he had selected in the Avon district in January 1831. As an afterthought his four town lots in Kelmscott 19 to 22 inclusive (mentioned here previously) were also for sale. These were purchased in 1839 by Robert Stewart [Carter:27], along with a further three town lots – 23, 24, 25 – previously owned by Edward Barron. Barron, a former 63rd Regiment Colour Sergeant, upon discharge from the Army, managed with his wife Jane some of Perth’s earliest hotels. Stewart’s properties, of course, were adjacent to the Barracks on lot 26, per the Atkinson Plan.

Robert Stewart gave up the good fight of making a living as a sheep and cattle farmer in Kelmscott and put his properties up for sale. Although Stewart’s agent writes in glowing terms of the town lots, they did not sell immediately. Perhaps a derelict and burnt out barracks’ lot next door was a detractor!

Henry Martin arrived on Simon Taylor in 1842 with his wife, three sons and five daughters. He worked at various labouring jobs before leasing a property in the Canning district. In 1857, Martin purchased Robert Stewart’s Kelmscott town lots 19 to 25 – per Atkinson’s 1830 Plan.

In 1859 F T Gregory re-surveyed the town lots [Cons 3850 Item 19(c)]. As neither the Atkinson Plan nor the revised Gregory Plan show these lots’ dimensions, I cannot begin to comment on how this new survey impacted on the existing lots. Nonetheless, it was in 1859 that Martin purchased lots 18 and 26 from the government. Lot 18 was not assigned to anyone in 1830 (Atkinson) nor in 1839 (Ogle’s Appendix) and of course Lot 26 was nominated the original siting of the Barracks and thus Government property..

Martin now had a straight run of Canning River frontage lots 18 to 26. In January 1861 he was charged with stealing cattle and sentenced to 15 years penal servitude. As Colonial Prisoner #5582 he received his ticket of leave on 13 Aug 1863. He joined his youngest son in Toodyay and died in 1871, aged 69 years, the year he received his pardon. Meanwhile his second son, Henry Junior (initially implicated in the cattle theft) took over the Kelmscott family home in 1861 with his new bride.

In 1930 a ‘cairn’ was built to commemorate the centenary of the ‘first house’ built in Kelmscott. The researchers of that event deemed it to be the Barracks erected by the 63rd Regiment. It was named Martin’s Cairn but given the dates on the Cairn, it seems to relate to Henry Martin Junior. Click here for further information.

In 2009, the Kelmscott Historical Society engaged Dr Shane Burke to undertake an archaeological assessment of what may have been the site of the Kelmscott Barracks. In his Report, Dr Burke’s closing remarks were:
Archaeological excavations strongly suggest that the present Lot 26 is not the site of the 1830 dated Kelmscott barracks. This result, combined with fine resolution historical data, suggest that the neighbouring Lot 25 was the barracks’ site. Visual examination from a distance of the area on Lot 25 that Gregory marks as the barracks’ site suggests the presence of a low mound in a well-grassed area.
It is impossible to say conclusively that this feature is the barracks’ remains. Therefore, one recommends:
1. Contacting the property’s owner to ask permission to survey the area;
2. Ideally, one or two excavations on the mound feature would suffice to determine if it is a structure;
3. If excavation is impossible one should consider Ground Penetrating Radar or metal detecting of the site and its surrounds.

To my knowledge none of the above recommendations were acted upon. It would be wonderful to get some tangible evidence from Lot 25.

If it is at all tempting (for a dig), a King George the Third coin and other artefacts have been found on marked settlers’ homes in the Kelmscott/Canning district.

Sources
Books & Journals
‘Along the Canning’, F G Carden, 1968.
‘A Colony Detailed’, the First Census of WA 1832, Ian Berryman.
‘The Colony of Western Australia: A Manual for Emigrants to that Settlement or Its Dependencies’, Nathaniel Ogle, 1839.
‘Conquest and Settlement: The 21st Regiment in Western Australia 1833-1840’, Geoff Blackburn, 1999.
‘The Gosnells Story’, G McDonald and W S Cooper, City of Gosnells, 1988.
‘Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia, During the Years 1829, 1830, 1831, and 1832’, Joseph Cross, 1833.
‘Legal Executions in Western Australia’, Brian Purdue, Foundation Press 1993.
‘The Military Establishment in Western Australia 1829-1863’, E S and C G S Whiteley, 2010.
‘Not an Idle Man’, a Biography of John Septimus Roe, J L Burton Jackson, 1982.
‘Settlement to City’, Jennie and Bevan Carter, 2011.
‘State and Position of Western Australia’, Captain Fredk Chidley Irwin, 1835 reprinted 2019.
Dictionary of Western Australians, Vol. 1 1829-1850, compiled by Pamela Statham, 1979.
Dictionary of Western Australians, Vol. 3 1850-1868, compiled by Rica Erickson, 1979.
List of Round House Prisoners 1831 to 1856, courtesy of Steve Errington, 2022.
Archives
Lieutenant-Governor Stirling’s Proclamation of the Colony, 18 June 1829 [WAS 1243, Cons 620/1, WA State Records Office].
Passenger List of Medina 1830 [Battye Library Acc 36/12/85 transcribed Graham Bown].
Copies of Original Records of Baptism of the Diocese of Perth by A Burton, 31st July 1937.
War Office Muster Rolls and Pay Lists WO12-7261 to 7265 (63rd); 3802 to 3809 (21st); 6200 to 6209 (51st)[National Archives, Kew].
War Office General Orders WO17-288 [National Archives, Kew].
Colonial Secretary’s Office files [See Whiteley p.84 Distribution of Troops – Battye Library, State Library of WA].
War Office Distribution of Troops WO17 Monthly Returns [National Archives, Kew].
Colonial Office Despatches, 1831, CO18-9-127/128 & 225/30 [National Archives, Kew].
Colonial Office Despatches, 1837, CO18-18-237/238 [National Archives, Kew].
Chart of Swan River by Captain James Stirling RN 1827, Cons 3844 Item 411 [WA State Records Office].
Plans of Kelmscott Series S235 Cons 3868 Item 222 & 225 [WA State Records Office].
Plan of Kelmscott Series S241 Cons 3850 Item 19(c) [WA State Records Office].
Plan of Canning Series S236 Cons 3853 Item 058 [WA State Records Office].
Census Records in Despatches 1832, 1836, 1837 [CO18 Piece Nos. 10, 16, 18].
Government Gazettes: No. 86, 16 Dec 1837, No. 103, 5 May 1838, No. 431, 22 Nov 1844.
Websites
The Western Australia Police Historical Society Inc. (Superintendent Theophilus Ellis – his Life and Services, Peter Conole).
Design & Art Australia Online (John Atkinson Biography, Margaret Glover).
Fremantle Prison Convict Database.
inHerit State Heritage Public Inventory, Place Nos. 04708 and 01132.
Newspapers
Colonial Times 1 Feb 1831.
Perth Gazette 23 Feb 1833.
Perth Gazette 28 Jul 1838.
Perth Gazette 20 Jul 1839.
Perth Gazette 3 Aug 1839.
Inquirer 6 Oct 1841.
Inquirer 20 Oct 1841.
Inquirer 8 Aug 1854.
Perth Gazette 11 Jan 1861.
West Australian 5 Jan 1933.

Acknowledgements
John Christen Bell [History House Museum, Armadale], Lyn Coy [Swan River Pioneers], Damien Hassan [WA State Records Office], Christine Stack [Landgate], Jeff Walker [Birtwistle Local Studies, Armadale Library]. And especially friends Ernie Fowler who first sparked my interest in the Kelmscott Military Post, and Bevan Carter who helps and encourages me in everything I try to achieve. Over three years after this page was first posted, Thomas Fellows shared the location and sources for Canning Barracks, an unknown entity, until Thomas contacted me.

© Diane Oldman 2023
Revised 2026