Police gazettes

The Police Gazette of Western Australia (1876 onwards) is a valuable resource for researching police and criminals in Western Australia.  Information can be found under various headings:

  • apprehensions (name of person arrested, arresting constable, charge and sentence);
  • police appointments, dismissals, discharges, promotions, resignations and transfers;
  • tickets of leave, certificates of freedom, and conditional pardons issued to convicts;
  • physical descriptions of prisoners (name, condition, build, age, height, hair and eye colour, visage, complexion, trade, nationality and distinguishing marks);
  • deserters from military service;
  • escaped prisoners;
  • expirees leaving the colony;
  • inquests (where held, date, before whom, name and date of death of person, verdict);
  • licences (publican, gallon, eating, boarding and lodging houses, railway refreshment rooms, wine and beer, colonial wine, spirit merchants, club, wayside house, packet and billiard table - name of licensee, name of hotel etc and town or district given);
  • missing friends;
  • prisoners discharged;
  • people tried at Quarter Sessions (name, offence, district, verdict, how disposed of);
  • special inquiries;
  • stealing in dwellings;
  • and warrants issued.

With thanks to the Friends of Battye Library and the Sholl Bequest, the Police Gazettes 1876-1900 have been digitised and are fully text searchable.

Police gazettes 1876 - 1908

Indexes were compiled for each year of the gazette under the headings noted above. Please note the indexes for 1878, 1879, 1897 and 1898 are not available. Usually under each heading you will find the name of a person with the page number of the gazette for the year where you will find the entry. These are available in pdf format and can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Index for 1878 is not available

The Index for 1879 is not available

The Index for 1880 is not available

The Index for 1898 is not available