With an increasing acreage under wheat in each year, and a return which was estimated to average from sixteen to twenty-five bushels an acre, farmers sought to produce sufficient wheat to supply the demand. In 1855 numerous mills were busily engaged at Perth and in country districts, but even yet the supply was short. Flour was imported from South Australia and from over the ocean in that and the following year. The harvest of 1856-7 was a large one, but before it was all gleaned the commissariat ordered a quantity of flour from Adelaide. Farmers were annoyed, and determined to assert their rights. Meetings were held at Northam and York, denouncing the purchase of flour from a "foreign source." They asserted that Western Australia produced sufficient for the consumption. York residents sent a memorial to Governor Kennedy, and through him to Her Majesty's Government. His Excellency, in reply, said he was glad to learn that the colony now produced wheat enough for local consumption, regretted that tenders from South Australia had been accepted before the harvest was garnered, confessed that the Government should give "preference" to local produce, and promised to transmit the memorial to England. Practical critics informed farmers that they must not expect consideration until they agreed to sell their product as cheap as or cheaper than the outside producer; they said, in short, that farmers asked too much for grain.
The Chamber of Commerce in February, 1857, drew up a memorial to the Home Government requesting that supplies should be purchased in the colony, and expressing the conviction that all "foreign" articles for the commissariat should be subject to he ad valorem duty. The Government, in compliance with their own views and those of the Secretary for the Colonies, thenceforward, as far as possible, procured flour in the local market. The farming community was at last able and willing to sell at as low a rate as the outsider. The prices of foodstuffs in December, 1860, were:—Flour, 40s. to 50s. a sack; wheat, 9s. a bushel; beef and mutton, 6d. a lb.; and butter, 2s. 6d. a lb.
While Western Australia was thus gaining, there were growing up in her midst numerous monuments of the labour of convicts. From Albany to York to Toodyay, from Busselton to Fremantle to Port Gregory, public works of varied descriptions were reared. England erected these merely for the privilege of being allowed to disgorge, through a conduit pipe, the mire of her over-populated cities, the slime of her rural inhabitants. There was a pleasure in watching the construction of work after work; it was like a rich relative coming on to one's land to open it up, to improve and develop it, so that one might make more money. He spent money to feed his workmen, he bought supplies for the buildings he put up, and he even sent officers to superintend operations and to protect the recipients of these good things. It was very nice if the workmen left no contamination behind; but the settlers would see to that. There was but one regret—the relative was too dilatory on these improvements; he did not construct them as quickly as was desired.
In 1850-3 numerous complaints were made that roads and bridges, jetties and buildings, took so long in coming. There was a justness in these cries. Most of the convicts were eligible to tickets of leave a few months after their arrival; hence the numbers actually engaged on public works were comparatively small, and they were employed at Fremantle in raising a permanent prison for themselves and quarters for their officers. Only a small number could be sent out to country depots or on road parties. The other side of the subject was equally as worthy. Settlers asked for only the very best class of felons and for cheap labour; the convict authorities transported men who had short sentences, and who had served periods in English prisons. If Western Australia did not want the dangerous criminal she must not expect convicts to be held in the clutches of the system for a long period. Then those who were dangerous must be kept at the central depot, where the discipline was most strict and where the men were under the closest surveillance. It was necessary to erect a strong and durable prison for them; it was not safe to send them into the country. About 1855-6 a worse class was sent out; they were kept at Fremantle longer, but when they were set at liberty colonists rued it. To put it plainly, people wanted—first, British capital, and then, public works. They would manage the rest with the free emigrants.
The largest building erected by convicts was their prison—there is a touch of irony in their being compelled to construct an almost impregnable cage where they and their companions must be shut in from the world. A great deal of quarrying had to be done to level the ground; the stone thus obtained was used in the walls. The remaining stone was conveyed from quarries at North Fremantle. It was years of labour for hundreds of men to raise this monument. Most of the desperate characters were engaged on it; the chain gang was a conspicuous feature. For a few years progress was slow; the convicts had good quarters at Captain Scott's premises, and there was no need to hurry. Attention was first devoted to the pensioners' barracks. When completed, this row of buildings presented an uninteresting, gloomy picture. In later years it possessed the attraction of being a monument of doubtful times. It was not until 1853 that much activity was shown at the prison. Building was more or less brisk in 1854-5, and in 1855 convicts moved from the beach to take up their residence in the permanent gaol. The structure was then only half its present size. The sappers attached to the Establishment did some of the finer building work. At one time there were about 500 men engaged—on an area of 13 acres—some on the building itself, others in erecting the high stone wall. Before the structure was completed a phenomenal whirlwind greatly damaged it. In January, 1856, nearly 150 yards of the boundary wall, 20 feet high, and in places 2 feet 6 inches thick, were laid perfectly flat. The wind was of such terrific force that the wall was turned on its side from the foundation to the apex the stones apparently not separating until the ground was struck. Scaffolding planks weighing 170 lbs. were said to have been lifted 50 or 60 feet in the air; roofs, walls, sentry boxes, and lighter materials were torn down or carried away. No sooner was the first wing of the building completed than energy was concentrated on extending the premises and in erecting officers' quarters. In 1854 a public meeting was held in Fremantle, and proposed that the seat of government should be removed from Perth to the port. Lord John Russell positively disapproved of the scheme. Then in 1854 residents of Guildford, as if in retaliation, proposed that the Convict Establishment be removed from Fremantle to Guildford. Captain Scott's premises were re-engaged in 1855.
Governor Fitzgerald, just before leaving the colony in 1855, advised the Secretary of State to erect an invalid depot without loss of time. He forwarded a return of 40 probationers, re-convicted men, and ticket-of-leave men who were physically incapable of earning their own livelihood, and held that the colonial revenue could not be expected to maintain them. He suggested
