Why are there Bars on the Internal Windows?

As you walk around the Batavia Viewing Gallery you may wonder why the internal windows have bars on them, after all, the outer windows have solid, though old, grills on them, and the building is stout and secure. The simple answer is that the west wall of the gallery was originally the outer, eastern wall of ‘A Store’, the first of the buildings on this site to be completed by convict labour. However, public records indicate that there was a wooden commissariat store near this site in the 1840s, and that it was burgled on at least one occasion, because it was not secure and the nightwatchman was asleep at the time. Also on this site was a wooden stables, demolished in 1896 to make way for the Drum Store.

When A Store was built the windows were fitted with iron bars to keep the contents secure. While it has long been known that the bars were imported from Britain, and that many of them are stamped with a broad arrow, to indicate government ownership, it was only when they were removed for corrosion treatment in 2014 that their place of manufacture was discovered. After being sandblasted the name ‘Cyfarthfa’ was revealed. In the 1850s the Welsh town of Cyfarthfa was home to one of the largest iron works in Britain, and its products were exported all over the world, including the Colony of Western Australia.

Cyfartha Ironworks, Wales, photographed in 1894. 
Credit: Alan George Archive