Geelong Law Courts

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• The Geelong Law Courts
• Arrangement of material
• About the Geelong Lawyers' Collection
• Lawyers and law associations in the collection

The Geelong Law Courts by Vivian Hill
Text copyright held by Vivian Hill.  For more information see the Copyright page

When Mr. Owen Bourke S.M. was working as a clerk in the Geelong Court he noticed an old ledger type book used to prop up a ladder in the section where files were kept.  He had a look at it and saw it was the original register of the court cases held in Geelong.  He thought it should be kept as an historic exhibit in the current Magistrates Court but this idea was overruled by the Victoria Public Record Office where it is now kept along with all Victorian State Archives under legislative direction.  Cases heard and recorded in Geelong in 1838 have been published in "Historical Records of Victoria" 1981.

The first courthouse was near the south west corner of McKillop Street and Yarra Street midway between settlement on the sea front and settlement on the Barwon River.  A Supreme Court was built in Myers Street in 1856 east of Bellerine Street and a new Police Court built in 1883 at the intersection of Little Malop and Gheringhap Street replacing the original court.  That site became the Supreme Court and Magistrate Court in 1938.  A new Court for all state courts in Railway Terrace was opened in 1992.  Suburban and district courts at Geelong West, Belmont and Drysdale have closed and courts are no longer held at Queenscliff.

Although punishments such as 50 lashes by the Scourger have been replaced by 50 hours of community service the nature of crime has not changed since 1838.  The first case in October that year was a charge of breaking and entering premises for theft.  There are plenty of such cases recorded in the court registers at Geelong in June 2000.

Arrangement of material

The list below describes material held in the Geelong Law Courts archive box, which is located at 340.099452 Geelon Hil/Glc on the shelves in the Geelong Lawyers' Collection within the Special Collection at the Waterfront campus.  The material has been arranged in date order. 

Date	Title	Item no.
1842	Photograph of sketch of original Geelong courthouse and stocks at cnr McKillop St. & Yarra St. [Click on image to enlarge it.]	GC1
1883	Photograph of Police Court cnr. Little Malop and Gheringhap Streets, Geelong	GC28
6/3/1920	Cutting from 'The Argus" newspaper re court attire	GC24
1920	Photocopy of newspaper cutting 'Wig and Gown' by F.W. Hosken	GC2
1930	Advertisement for book 'When the court smiled..' by C.K. Thompson	GC3
30/5/1931	Handwritten extract from Geelong Advertiser re damage to the Supreme Court Building, Myers St. Geelong	GC31
1979	Legal year opening address by Mr. Justice O'Bryan re history of Courts in Geelong [First page of address. Click on image to enlarge it]	GC5
1983	Photograph of Law Courts at Lt. Malop St. Geelong [Click on image to enlarge it.]	GC4
1985	Legal year opening address re court history in Geelong [First page of address. Click on image to enlarge it.]	GC6
10/10/1987	Cutting from Geelong Advertiser re. report of address by Mr. Owen Burke on 150th anniversary of arrival of first magistrate Foster Fyans	GC8
16/4/1988	Cutting from Geelong Advertiser re building of Geelong West Court 100 years previously	GC7
15/10/1991	Original note from Peter McLean, Registrar of Magistrates Court Railway Terrace Geelong re items placed in time capsule when that building was built	GC9
1996	Extract from 'Geelong hotels & licensees' re Court House Hotel	GC10
15/4/1997	Photograph of members of Victorian Court of Appeal at Geelong (first sitting)	GC20
15/4/1997	Negatives of above photograph	GC21
15/4/1997	Welcome address to Court of Appeal by Michael Williams, President of Geelong Law Association, & cutting from Geelong Advertiser re Court of Appeal Sitting	GC13
14/5/1996	3 photographs of Law Courts at Railway Terrace, Geelong, photograph 1 [Click on image to enlarge it.]	GC11
14/5/1996	3 photographs of Law Courts at Little Malop St., Geelong.	GC12
1997	Card showing 1888 plan and elevation of Geelong West Court House	GC14
1997	Card showing elevation of 1882 Court, Gheringhap St. Geelong	GC15
1997	Extract from Victorian Law Reports re case at Geelong when jury "keeper" was alleged to have interfered with deliberations of jury	GC16
2/1997	Photograph of building previously Supreme Court Hotel cnr Myers St. and Benson Lane	GC17
2/1997	Site of the Myers St. Court demolished circa 1927	GC18
18/3/1997	Cutting from Geelong Advertiser re Public Record Office plans and photographs of Geelong Courts available on CD	GC19
21/7/1998	Cutting from Geelong Advertiser re fire near Geelong West Court House	GC22
1999	Cover of 1999/2000 Geelong Telephone directory showing 1938 court now used as a youth arts centre	GC26
4/2000	List of Geelong Solicitors from Telephone directory Yellow Pages	GC35
3/4/2000	Transcript of welcome to Court of Appeal	GC27
19/12/2000	Geelong Law Association memorandum re Supreme Court Circuit Sittings	GC34
16/6/2001	Extract from Geelong Advertiser's '150 years ago, 1851'  re bad weather preventing the commencement of the court criminal sittings	GC32
21/7/2001	Extract from Geelong Advertiser's '100 years ago, 1901' re commencement of work on the new watchhouse and quarters in Little Malop St. Geelong	GC33
8/8/2001	Extract from Geelong Advertiser's '125 years ago, 1876' re administration of justice in Geelong at that time	GC36
	Photograph of sketch of 'Court House Hotel' by S.T. Gill	GC23
	Photograph of Drysdale Court House opened in 1880	GC25
	Photograph of sketch of Law Courts, Myers Street, Geelong	GC29
	2 photographs of Law Courts, Myers Street, Geelong, photograph 1 [Click on image to enlarge it]	GC30

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