History of the Old Courthouse
The building now called The Old Courthouse, originally began life as government offices. When John Cawood came to Stuart in 1927 (as Alice Springs was known until 1933) to take up office as the Government Resident for Central Australia, he suggested that the government offices be sited across the road from The Residency instead of next door as first proposed. Perhaps Cawood was attempting a bit more distance between home and work in the tiny and isolated township that was Alice Springs in the 1920s?
While the original intention was that the buildings be constructed of stone, it was finally decided to build all Government buildings in Alice Springs at this time from concrete blocks. These hollow concrete bricks, which resembled stone, were made in moulds resulting in sturdy but economically constructed buildings. Using a complex pattern of bricklaying, the similarities between the individual bricks were not apparent and the result resembled stone. The building was completed by around the end of 1928.
Its functions were many and varied: office of the Government Resident, meeting rooms and mining warden's court. In 1934, the Supreme Court of Central Australia first sat in Alice Springs and arrangements were made for the use of the large room. In 1936, this room became the site of the local court and thereafter the Alice Springs general court house until 1980. During the war years, part of the verandah space was walled in to create a married officer’s flat. The multifunctional nature of the building occasionally caused problems. In December 1944, Government Secretary Giles wrote to Clerk of Courts, Joseph Nichols to complain that one of the rooms off the verandah:
Is apparently being used as a tea room and … in a disgraceful condition … cigarette butts on the floor and a basin half full of dirty water…
By 1975 there was a problem with using the building as a local courtroom, as the Supreme Court also used the space for three weeks six times each year. On such occasions, the Lower Court had to be temporarily located elsewhere.
In 1981, restoration work by the Government and National Trust was completed and the building used by the Northern Territory Department of Law. In March 1990, the site was transferred to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).
MAGNT used the building as office space until 1994 when the building was leased to the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame as a museum dedicated to the interpretation and display of material significant to the women of Australia.
