Entrance to Police Court, Justice & Police Museum (detail). Photo © Hayley Richardson & Stuart Miller for Sydney Living Museums
- Unlocked
If these walls could talk: Justice & Police Museum
The Justice & Police Museum houses the Water Police Station, Water Police Court and Police Court that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters – the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here.
Mug shot of Kate Leigh, 1930. NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Sydney Living Museums JP89/610-4
Queen of the underworld: Kate Leigh
Notorious Sydney criminal Kate Leigh has an interesting association with the Justice & Police Museum. At the beginning of her long criminal career she appeared before the Water Police Court on charges of perjury, first in 1905 and again in 1914. Leigh never gave much information to a court and so simply replied, ‘Not guilty. I reserve my defence’ when questioned by the magistrate in 1914 about some less-than-truthful statements she’d made in a previous court case. She was later found guilty by a higher court of providing a false alibi for her lover Samuel ‘Jewey’ Freeman. This conviction was a pivotal moment for Leigh – after being sentenced, she allegedly mumbled, ‘Seven years for stickin’ to a man. I’ll swing before I stick to another’.
On release from prison Leigh began making her fortune in the lucrative inner-city sly grog and cocaine trade. She dominated this illicit business and used her own hired muscle to keep rivals at bay. Leigh, however, could defend herself, as was the case in 1930 when she shot dead the gangster John ‘Snowy’ Prendergast, who had broken into her home. She was acquitted of his murder on the grounds of self-defence.
The infamous gunman John ‘Chow’ Hayes summed up her character when he said, ‘If you were sweet with Kate, she’d do anything for you and give you anything. But if you crossed her, she’d shoot you'.
Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite. The Illustrated Australian News, 28 November 1879. State Library of Victoria IAN28/11/79/180
A ‘gentlemanly-looking’ criminal: Captain Moonlite
Andrew George Scott invented the alias ‘Captain Moonlite’ during a foolish robbery he committed in Egerton, Victoria, in 1869. Wearing a simple disguise, Scott forced the local bank manager – who was a good friend of his – to open the bank safe, which contained gold and other valuables. Scott’s attempts to conceal his identity didn’t fool his friend but by the time police investigated, he’d fled to Sydney.
After depositing the stolen gold at the Mint, Scott went on a wild spending spree. Even when he ran out of money, he continued to write cheques, including one to buy a yacht on which he intended to sail to Fiji. But before he could effect his escape, he was caught by officers from the Water Police Station and locked up in its crowded cells.
On 30 November 1870, newspapers reported that Scott, a ‘gentlemanly-looking individual’, appeared before the Water Police Court on charges of obtaining money by false pretences. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to prison. Scott next appeared before the court in 1872, charged with the Egerton robbery, and this time he was sent to a Victorian prison. Upon his release he headed back to NSW.
Scott later became a bushranger, leading a small group of outlaws. In 1879 he engaged in a desperate battle with police at Wantabadgery station, outside Wagga Wagga, which led to the deaths of a police officer and two members of the gang. Scott was found guilty of murder and hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol in 1880. His death mask now resides in the Justice & Police Museum collection.
The Notorious Criminals exhibition is currently on at the Justice & Police Museum.
The capture of Moonlite and his gang. The Illustrated Australian News, 28 November 1879, engraving. State Library of Victoria IAN28/11/79/177
About the Author
This article originally appeared in Unlocked: The Sydney Living Museums Gazette, our quarterly Members’ magazine.
More stories from the Justice & Police Museum
A dubious defence
On 19 October 1921 Herbert Burridge, cook, 28 years of age, 5 feet 8½ inches tall, fair complexion, light brown hair and blue eyes, was listed in the New South Wales Police Gazette as a deserter from HMAS Cerberus.
A Life In Crime
Curator Nerida Campbell has got the dream job – rummaging through the grit and grime of Sydney’s criminal past to help us to come to terms with the city’s dark side.
Big Bill MacKay
William John MacKay (1885–1948), known as Bill, was a Scottish-born police officer who played a major role in policing Sydney’s underworld during the 1920s. Affectionately known as ‘Big Bill’, he was 6 feet (183 centimetres) tall and weighed almost 100 kilograms.
Crooks like us
Crooks Like Us presents more than 200 stunningly reproduced images in delicate balance with their stories, creating a captivating relay between image and narrative, narrative and image. Look at the picture, read the story, then look at the picture again and see it anew.
Fallen hero of Flanders
In March 1922, Victorian-born petty criminal Arthur Ernest Noonan was arrested by Sydney police, charged on a provisional warrant and remanded to Melbourne to face charges of conspiracy to defraud. Found guilty, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. It was not his first conviction and certainly not his last.
Femme Fatale
The female criminal has always intrigued human society. The femme fatale usually possesses an irresistible sexual allure and leads an enthralling life unpunished by the law. Scrutinised closely, the reality for most women turns out to be a hard, dysfunctional and violent life – brutalised and degraded further by stints in prison.
Finishing the interiors at Justice & Police Museum
As part of Sydney Living Museums' ongoing program of maintenance, we were delighted to renew the interior finishes at the Justice & Police Museum.
George Freeman
A charismatic and persuasive man, Freeman rose to become one of Sydney’s leading figures of organised crime, in particular dominating the racing and illegal gambling industries. In this video former colleagues, journalists and police discuss the role he played in organised crime.
Gritty business
Immerse yourself in Sydney's chilling criminal past in this unique water-front museum of policing, law and disorder - with its grizzly collection of underworld weapons along with tales of mayhem and lawlessness, aptly described as an educational resource befitting a 'professor in crime'.
If these walls could talk: Justice & Police Museum
The Justice & Police Museum houses the Water Police Station, Water Police Court and Police Court that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters – the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here.
Lenny McPherson as informer
Video of former Assistant Police Commissioner Geoff Schuberg discussing raiding Lenny McPherson's home and recruiting him as an informer.
Returned from active service
In July 1921 James Arthur Banfield was arrested by Sydney police, photographed and charged on three counts of larceny. He had stolen a horse, a set of harness and a lorry from Wilson’s Steam Laundry in Surry Hills.
Sensational car chase
John Talbot Wright, aged 32, a motor mechanic and former chauffeur, was arrested on 11 September 1920 by Constable Cecil Elliott after a sensational car chase through city streets.
Sydney’s Pubs: liquor, larrikins & the law
Sydney’s Pubs: liquor, larrikins & the law (also an exhibition at the Justice & Police Museum in 2008) explores the colourful and complex history of the city's watering holes.
The 1910 Collection
Beating steadily at the heart of the Justice & Police Museum is the so-called 1910 Collection. Read about the many items and the stories that lay lurking in its shadows.
The archive’s negatives
The New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive contains photographic negatives in several formats and sizes created between around 1910 and 1964. These negatives are both a record of how New South Wales Police used photography and a reflection of how photographic technology changed during these decades.
The Collection: New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive
Nestled between Sydney Harbour and the city skyscrapers is a squat cluster of sandstone buildings known today as the Justice & Police Museum. Occupying what was once one of the colony’s busiest legal complexes, the museum cares for an eclectic collection of material relating to Sydney’s criminal and policing history. This includes the remarkable New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive.
The photographer’s bag
The images captured on the glass-plate negatives were intended to be printed as closely cropped identification mugshots showing the suspect’s face and build. Knowing this, the police photographer often did not bother to move his bag and occasionally his hat out of the frame.
The Shadow Outwits Savvy Safebreakers
A routine stocktake leads to a new display that shines a light on the battle between NSW Police and the safebreaking fraternity.
When masks were compulsory
In a year when COVID-19 devastates the world, it’s timely to reflect on an earlier pandemic that affected every aspect of life, including at our properties.
More stories from Unlocked
1960s psychedelia at Rouse Hill House
In a short experimental period of music making, the talented young John Terry combined radical musical ideas with abstract imagery and the soundscape of Rouse Hill House.
A fisherwoman of Warrane
Daringa’s short but fascinating life reflects the connection of coastal Aboriginal peoples to the water, and the key role played by women in the fishing economy.
A Life In Crime
Curator Nerida Campbell has got the dream job – rummaging through the grit and grime of Sydney’s criminal past to help us to come to terms with the city’s dark side.
A long shadow: convict Sydney and the Hyde Park Barracks
Hailed for its architecture, and now World Heritage listed, the Hyde Park Barracks has much more to tell us about the changing experience of convicts and the growth of a restless colony.
A stitch in time
Tatting, knotting, knitting, pin-tucking, crocheting, pinking, stitching, stuffing, embroidering … needles fly when Sydney Living Museums’ volunteer Soft Furnishings Group (SFG) converges twice a month at Elizabeth Bay House to create, re-create and maintain existing furnishings for our historic places.
Ambition and adventure: the early life of Arthur Phillip
During the bicentenary of Arthur Phillip’s death we looked back at the early life of this intriguing man, who had enjoyed an extraordinary career before he even set foot on a boat bound for Botany Bay.
An environment for living: Rose Seidler House
From the curtains to the coffee table and the cutlery, every object and fitting in the house Harry Seidler designed for his parents was of a functional and flexible design that reflected the modern lifestyle.
Ancient traditions, new insights
Since 2015, a series of new events privileges Aboriginal voices and experiences at SLM sites.
Bringing House Museums to Life
Joanna Nicholas relishes her job as curator of three house museums, working to make sure each one is presented, interpreted and conserved in the best possible way.
Collections care in a time of coronavirus
Museum closures earlier this year due to COVID-19 gave Sydney Living Museums staff a valuable opportunity to spend even more time caring for our historic houses and their precious and diverse collections.
Conserving Australia’s oldest public clock
On its 200th anniversary, Australia’s oldest surviving public clock received some much-needed conservation and care.
Conserving Harry Seidler’s sofa
A sofa Harry Seidler designed for Rose Seidler House has recently been conserved and reupholstered, and the process revealed some unexpected findings.
Conserving the Arcade
The conservation of the Rouse Hill House arcade is an ongoing process of evaluation and cautious intervention.
Dig a little deeper
Fruit seeds, fragile fragments and family history – archaeologist and curator Dr Fiona Starr shares her discoveries.
European designers in Sydney
A new exhibition takes a timely look at European designers in Sydney in the postwar years: their backgrounds, their Australian careers and their legacy.
From the collection: colour cakes and old invoices
Objects provide fascinating insights into the daily lives of the people who lived at our museums. Recent research triggered by the conservation of a spike file from the Rouse Hill House collection has uncovered some interesting information.
From the collection: Richard Browne watercolours
Richard Browne was a Dublin-born convict artist who was transported to NSW in 1811 and spent most of his seven-year sentence at the secondary penal settlement of Newcastle. In 1812–13 he was commissioned to make a series of drawings to illustrate a planned natural history publication.
From the collection: staff favourites
We invite staff to write about their favourite object from our collections.
If these walls could talk: Elizabeth Farm
A century after it was built Elizabeth Farm had become a local eyesore – forlorn, tumbling down and neglected. Then along came a plucky and energetic schoolteacher who sized it up as the answer to his family’s long-running housing troubles.
If these walls could talk: Hyde Park Barracks Museum
One of the most significant convict sites in the world, the UNESCO World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks was converted into Sydney’s female Immigration Depot in 1848, temporarily housing an estimated 40,000 women during its 38-year history. The barracks holds evidence of these former occupants in its walls, floors and ceilings.
If these walls could talk: Justice & Police Museum
The Justice & Police Museum houses the Water Police Station, Water Police Court and Police Court that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters – the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here.
If these walls could talk: Rose Seidler House
… they’d tell us intriguing things about those who have lived in our places. Step inside Rose Seidler House with Curator Joanna Nicolas.
If these walls could talk: Rouse Hill House & Farm
On the evening of 28 April 1899 the first act of a concert held at Rouse Hill House finished with a song performed by the jovial host, Edwin Stephen Rouse (1849–1931).
If these walls could talk: The Mint
Charles Miller, Frederick Sydney Hoptroff, Arthur Kilgour, Edgar Upton, Oliver Whiting, Theophilus (Theo) Bowmaker and John Gilchrist were all employees of the Royal Mint’s Sydney branch.
In conversation with Wendy Whiteley
Wendy Whiteley OAM talks to exhibition curator Veronica Kooyman about the significance of Lavender Bay in her extraordinary life as wife, muse, mother, and creator of a much-loved garden.
Lavender Bay, 1974
In early 1974, Tom Carment moved into a flat in Lavender Bay. The young artist took odd jobs to pay the rent, and found inspiration in his vibrant surroundings.
Lisa Green
We discuss the rewarding partnership between Sydney Living Museums and Australian House & Garden with the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Lisa Green.
Looking forward to a bold future
In his first 12 months as Executive Director of both Sydney Living Museums and its partner agency, NSW State Archives, Adam Lindsay has overseen remarkable achievements and unprecedented challenges. He sets out his vision for the year ahead, with a particular focus on creative and community partnerships.
Matching snapshots
The names and stories behind street photographs are often lost with the passing of time, and we were unable to identify many of the people whose images are featured in the Street Photography exhibition. However, we’ve since learnt the moving story behind one image, of two curly-haired children.
Meet our Aboriginal Advisory Committee
A group of Indigenous advisers will guide SLM in realising our new Aboriginal Action Plan.
Meet our members: Dr Lisa Murray & Dr Mark Dunn
For our Autumn edition of Unlocked, we sat down with historians and members Lisa and Mark to chat about their love of history and Sydney Living Museums.
Meet our members: Elinor Wrobel
For our Summer edition of Unlocked 2018, we sat down with art collector, archivist, curator and former nurse, Elinor Wrobel OAM, a longstanding supporter and member of Sydney Living Museums.
Muru Mittigar Education Programs at Rouse Hill House & Farm
A partnership with Aboriginal social enterprise Muru Mittigar is transforming students’ learning experiences.
Preserving our culinary heritage
Autumn is the time when families like the Rouses of Rouse Hill House & Farm preserved the last of the warmer weather’s bounty to enjoy in the months to come.
Reconstructing history
If there is one architect who has shaped the way we think about Sydney, it is Harry Seidler, the visionary responsible for some of our most iconic skyscrapers and modernist houses.
Remembering John Macarthur
September 2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of John Macarthur: wool pioneer, politician, rebel, businessman, family man, and builder of Elizabeth Farm.
Shrouded House: collection care at Rouse Hill House & Farm
Staff at Sydney Living Museums work tirelessly to ensure that buildings and collections are lovingly cared for, and to secure their longevity.
Snapped! The Ikon Studio street photographer at work
A remarkable acquisition of 5000 street snaps provides a lively and revealing record of one Sydney street in 1950 and offers a rare glimpse through the street photographer’s lens.
Sophie Jennings
In November 2017, we welcomed back Sophie Jennings from GML Heritage, volunteering at Sydney’s premier open-building event for her second year.
Stabilising the stone archway at Vaucluse House
A team of specialists undertook a delicate and complicated operation to rescue a significant 1830s stone archway from an invasive climbing plant.
Stage Royalty comes to Elizabeth Bay House
In the 1930s, Elizabeth Bay House emerged as a glamorous events venue after hosting the wedding reception of two of the most famous celebrities of the day.
Story of country: our beginning
When visiting Sydney Living Museums it can be difficult to see beyond the European colonial narrative of our past and picture these sites before the bricks and mortar were laid. But peeling back the layers of time we find ourselves immersed in a truly different landscape.
Ten years on
On 31 July 2020, the Hyde Park Barracks and ten other sites that make up the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property will mark their tenth anniversary on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
![Marion Best Pty Ltd: 'A room for Mary Quant' [Rooms on View, 1967].](https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/image_three_stack/public/COL_CSLRC_MHB_C_005_001_0.jpg?itok=1vOCqm9h)
The colour-filled career of Marion Hall Best
Interior designer Marion Hall Best had a love of colour and an uncanny ability to use it to transform a room. Sydney Living Museums holds the largest collection of Best’s work.
Timeless design
A new collaboration for Sydney Living Museums fuses history with distinctly contemporary design.
To speak the unspoken
For Aboriginal people, the Hyde Park Barracks and the convict system it oversaw represent a very different ‘founding narrative’, one that needs to be told in Aboriginal voices.
Tracing family connections
Using treasured objects from our collections, we chart the unique relationship between Rouse Hill House (c1813) and Meroogal (1885).
Tragedy on Sydney Harbour
Sydney’s worst maritime disaster occurred out of the blue on a sunny spring day in 1927. As well as the tragic loss of life, the accident is memorable for acts of heroism.
Turning the leaves of Australian garden history
The Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection comes into bloom with a beautiful collection of rare Yokohama Nursery Company catalogues.
Unfurling Sydney’s radical past
An intriguing acquisition sheds light on the political turmoil of the 1930s and the bungled opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Vaucluse House: a centenary
A century after the honorary board of trustees voted to form Vaucluse House as a museum, we celebrate their vision and pay tribute to the role Sydney Living Museums has played in preservation, conservation and interpretation.
Welcome to Unlocked
Welcome to the Winter 2014 online edition of the Sydney Living Museums' Gazette: Unlocked.
What lies beneath: conservation works
Two recent conservation projects at Rouse Hill House & Farm and Vaucluse House demonstrate the complex factors to consider when working with heritage buildings.
When masks were compulsory
In a year when COVID-19 devastates the world, it’s timely to reflect on an earlier pandemic that affected every aspect of life, including at our properties.
‘A most excellent brick house’: Elizabeth Farm
Curator Dr Scott Hill explores some of the enduring mysteries buried in the architecture of Australia’s oldest surviving homestead.
‘Everyone worked at the waterfront’
Sydney Harbour was the lifeblood of the thriving working‑class community who once lived in The Rocks, including the residents of the four terrace houses that now make up Susannah Place Museum.