First Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot and Pensioner Guard Barracks
Coordinates: 31°31′25″S 116°25′34″E / 31.5235°S 116.4261°E In 1851, the Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot was set up in the original township of Toodyay, now called West Toodyay. Temporary accommodation for the Enrolled Pensioner Guards was also constructed and surveys were carried out to enable more permanent accommodation to be built close by. The Enrolled Pensioner Guards were men who had either completed their duty of service or who had sustained injury while on active service. They had then volunteered as guards on the ships transporting convicts to Western Australia. Once the men were released from permanent duty, other duties of a peace keeping or military nature were expected of them. Many of these men became warders in charge of convicts.
The decision to turn the colony into a penal settlement occurred after a good many settlers petitioned the Government to do so. The colony had struggled to survive during the 1840s. Governor Charles Fitzgerald supported the proposal and the colony became a penal settlement in 1849.
The number of convicts sent to the colony was relatively small to start with. However, all that changed on 28 June 1851 when 293 convicts arrived on board Pyrenees. Their arrival had been unexpected. In addition, each convict was to receive his ticket-of-leave on disembarking at Fremantle.
Fitzgerald decided to set up convict hiring depots in areas where men had the best chance of finding employment. Country depots were planned for York, Toodyay and Bunbury and approximately 40 men would be sent to each district. Ticket-of-leave men would then be hired out by local settlers to do whatever work was required by them. The remainder of the men were stationed in the Perth and Fremantle areas.
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