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  • Burglars at work

    1877

  • Supreme Court Brisbane 1889

    1889

  • Illegal Immigrant Trial

    1927

  • 1877

  • Historic Photograph of the Entrance to Darlinghurst Gaol

    1887

  • Prosecution Record of Attempted Murder and Suicide

    1877

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On this week in... 1842

Manslaughter of a native child

On 1 July 1842, Charles Bussell was tried at the Perth Quarter Sessions on the charge of ‘manslaughter of a native child’, a girl aged about 7 years. Bussell claimed the shooting was an accident incurred while he was trying to obtain information about a theft from his property. In spite of being convicted by a jury on a charge of manslaughter he was sentenced with a fine of one shilling. This was the first time a white settler was tried at Perth for homicide of an Indigenous person.

This trial report is from The Perth Gazette

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This project is supported by the Australian Research Council, Griffith University and Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research.
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