Australia Courthouses

	Located in downtown Adelaide, South Australia's capitol city, this classic courthouse is still in use. It is distinguished by a Greek portico with four natural stone columns.
	Albany, on Western Australia's southern coast, was once the busiest whaling port in Australia. Being the only large city in the region, it's courthouse handles most major trials. The doorway portals are intriguingly scalloped.
	Upon seeing the Bairnsdale Courthouse in eastern Victoria, you can easily imagine an architect with competing fantasies: castle, church, dungeon, fortress. . . . Executed in brick and stone, this is one of the more exotic courthouses in the world.
	The Beechworth Courthouse in central Victoria was built in 1858 of local honey-colored granite. Now a museum, it is perfectly preserved from the days when the infamous bush ranger, Ned Kelly, and his gang members were tried for a variety of heinous crimes -- and found innocent, because the locals either revered or feared the Kelly Gang too much to send them to prison or to the gallows. Ned was later tried, convicted and executed in Melbourne.
	The Beverly Courthouse in Western Australia now houses a crafts shop. The red brick, classical arches, sloping roof and surrounding eucalypts, make this a classic Australian structure. It was published in the Law Society of Western Australia's monthly Brief journal for May, 1999, at an angle to the left and front of the building, but I thought the frontal shot was so striking, with the blue sky and eucalypts to left, right and in front, that I chose to include this additional image in the collection.
	The Beverly Courthouse, as published in the Law Society of Western Australia's Brief for May, 1999.
	Chiltern Courthouse, now a museum, was one of those discoveries you make when you talk to locals. "Oh, you have to go see Chiltern's old courthouse", I was told by the lady in the surplus store, near the border between New South Wales and Victoria, where I had stopped to buy a compass and a jackknife. This simple brick structure, with its picket fence, is archetypal of small-town buildings dating from the 1800's; there was not great wealth, but there was a sense of pride and a high level of craftsmanship.
	A brooding and ominous "Temple of Doom", Cooma Courthouse in New South Wales (east and south of Canberra) seems ready to pounce upon approaching litigants. It was hot and humid when I stopped, and the sky was full of thunderheads. I swatted at the ubiquitous Aussie flies for an hour, sweating profusely as I peered through my camera on its tripod; then gratefully washed up at a public water spigot in the park across the street.
	Fremantle Courthouse in Western Australia is now a part of the University of Notre Dame Australia. This port city for nearby Perth was revitalized by the America's Cup yacht race which was held here in 1987. When I took this image, the law school was conducting student debates in the courtroom.
	Goulburn Courthouse in New South Wales is a classic Italianate structure. The colorful flowers, including a spray of tiny white daisies across the green lawn, make this seem more like a Roman villa in Italy than a courthouse in the heart of Australian farm country.
	This was the only courthouse I found in Tasmania that seemed worth photographing (to be fair, I was in Tasmania for only 3 days). It's the old criminal court in Hobart, adjacent to the original women's prison, now operated as a museum. Of note, there is convict-carved stone, though not visible in this photograph. Convicts were a convenient source of skilled labor in the early Australian colonies, and many of Tasmania's older public buildings accordingly feature chiseled native stone.
	Located between Melbourne and Adelaide, Kingston is a small town on the great southern ocean. I sat in the parking lot of a grocery store, stared at by everybody who came to shop (particularly, by children, whose mothers invariably would shoo them inside before they had a chance to come over and ask what I was up to.) This courthouse is still in use.
	The old Northam Courthouse, a two hour drive east of Perth in Western Australia, is now the Stone Court Restaurant. Its walls are made of a roughly carved stone. The large eucalypt tree provides a dramatic frame. All eucalypt species come from Australia and New Guinea.
	Pingelly Courthouse, in the rolling farm country of inland Western Australia, was a pleasant surprise. Now a museum, the building is well preserved, and the flowers -- petunias, roses, etc. -- were in full early summer bloom.
	Pinjarra Courthouse is in a tiny town to the south and east of Perth. It is still in use.
	Port Adelaide's old courthouse is half an hour from the city of Adelaide. Near to the docks, it saw the trials of many sailors over the years. It is now a museum.
	Two hours east of Perth in Western Australia is the gold rush town of York. The York Courthouse, of stolid stone and brick, is now a museum. Glassed showcases contain early implements of justice: manacles, shackles, blackjacks and corner-worn law books. Behind the main building, tiny prison cells and early jailor's quarters are open for tours. The York main street is straight out of the last century, maintaining a gold rush historic theme. Numerous bed and breakfasts and excellent hotels and restaurants make it a fun destination.

	The Warwick Courthouse dates from 1886, and is constructed of stone. The courthouse sits across the street from a pleasant park, where several families were picnicking on the Saturday I arrived.
	Toowoomba Courthouse was a great discovery. I'd never heard of this city of roughly 100,000. At several thousand feet above sea level, and roughly 100 miles inland from Brisbane, it is a great place to escape the tropical moisture and summertime heat of the tropical coast.
	Nanango is my favorite Queensland courthouse. Built in "Queenslander" architectural style, with a wrap-around porch and stilt foundation (for flooding protection), this building sports turquoise and red colors which add to the charm.
	Maryborough is a few miles inland, on a substantial river, about 4 hours' drive north of Brisbane. The old part of town is a well-preserved colonial-style district, with a Customs House, banks, warehouses, post office, railway station, etc. The courthouse was built in 1901, replacing an earlier timber structure. I had to ask a man sleeping on the porch (awaiting a criminal court appearance) to move out of the shade, which he graciously did so I could take this picture.
	Childers Courthouse is another classic Queenslander. Prior to 1897, court functions in this flourishing sugar growing district were conducted in a room in the post office, with the unfortunate circumstance (as the courthouse committee wrote the Home Secretary) of requiring "witnesses . . . to wait outside in the street . . . and if the weather should prove inclement, the inconvenience and unpleasantness are increased the so much more."