It was here that Australia’s most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly, was committed to stand trial for murder. His mother Ellen, brothers Dan and Jim and Uncle Jim Kelly also faced charges in this courtroom.
Elizabeth Scott, the first woman hanged in Victoria, was sentenced to death there. Still with its original furnishings and fittings, many other famous names of Australian history had links with the Beechworth Courthouse including the ill-fated explorer, Robert O’Hara Burke, Sir Redmond Barry, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Australia and the first Australian-born Governor General, Sir Isaac Isaacs.
Built in 1858 and in continuous service for 131 years, the Beechworth Courthouse retains its original furniture and fittings. It is has been the setting of some of the most fascinating court cases in Victoria’s history.
The ill-fated explorer, Robert O’Hara Burke, in his role as Police Superintendent in Beechworth, once sat at the bench and Justices Sir Redmond Barry and Sir William Stawell passed judgement on many a defendant from the Judge’s chair. Sir Isaac Isaacs started his legal career in this building and later went on to become Australia’s first native-born Governor-General.
