The following index is extracted from the Registers of Yatala Gaol and includes only those prisoners who were born in Western Australia, or known to have offended in that state. The index covers the period 1897-1926. There were over 5,200 committals to Yatala Gaol, Adelaide S.A. from 1866 to 1926, all males. Not included here is the extremely high percentage of prisoners born overseas but resident in WA prior to their imprisonment at Yatala. Clicking on the Surname (link) will open a new window of Trove search results for all occurrences of the surname and given names combined. Wikipedia - item on Yatala Labour Prison + photo. To get the best out of using the table, go to the >> Table Search Guide <<

Source:

• Public Record Office of SA, reference GRG 54/41, Registers of Yatala Gaol.

Notes:

• Some records are no longer extant and committals for the period December 1877 to March 1883 are not covered, although many were second offences and will be included in earlier or later records
• Great attention to detail was imposed upon the record keepers and so one will find explicit details of a prisoner’s background and physical attributes as well as his offence(s) and ultimate fate.
• From 1883 there appear photographs (before and after shots) of each prisoner.
• The twentieth century shows an increase of committals largely due to the predominance of second and third etc. offenders, who in the interim had frequently adopted an additional alias.
• Bigamists were quite common and a number of prisoners had also suffered a Military Courts Martial.