A Just Legacy – Behind the Scenes: The Burt Family Collection

by Megan Shaw Curator, Old Court House Law Museum

The Old Court House Law Museum (Museum) unlocks stories through an exciting new exhibition showcasing behind the scenes of the Burt Family Collection. This exhibition highlights the Museum’s focus on collection management through recent digitisation and conservation projects. A Just Legacy reveals how conservation, research and digitisation can uncover stories and insight embedded in collection items to enable continued connection and conversations.

• Conservation is the process of ensuring that significant historical, social, aesthetic, and technological qualities of heritage items are preserved for future generations. Conservation is a vast set of practices, from preventative methods which are an ongoing process to interventive treatment which works to stabilise items and minimise the rate of object degradation.
• Digitisation is the process of digitally preserving collections and democratising access to the Collection by increasing accessibility online, thus allowing heritage collection items to have a wider reach and impact.

The Museum Collection is made up of more than 2,000 items of significance to the social and civic history of the Old Court House building and the legal and social history of Western Australia. Within the collection, which is of state, national and international significance¹, there is a sub-collection which comprises of 250 items created or owned by the Burt Family members.

The Museum’s Burt Family Collection is comprised of items from:

• Sir Archibald Paull Burt QC, the first Chief Justice of Western Australia;
• The Hon Septimus Burt KC, lawyer, politician, Attorney General; and
• Sir Francis Theodore Page Burt AC QC, Chief Justice of Western Australia, and subsequently Governor of Western Australia.

From Sir Archibald Paull Burt’s tenure as the sole judge in the colony establishing the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 1861; The Hon Septimus Burt serving in the Western Australian parliament and as Attorney General; and Sir Francis Burt, who served as the Chief Justice and Governor of Western Australia; their combined lives in Western Australia span 162 years. Their careers reflect the evolution of cultural and societal values in Western Australia.

Items from the Burt Family Collection are some of the oldest and most fragile in the Museum Collection. As such these items were prioritised for conservation and digitisation due to their condition, historic provenance and significance as individual items and as a collection.

In 2023 the Museum received a donation from the Wright Burt Foundation to digitise and conserve the Burt Family Collection. All Museums work towards conserving and digitising their collections, however, resourcing is a major factor in applying these principles. The support received from the Wright Burt Foundation, has allowed the Museum to dream big and set a standard for digitisation and re-assess and update our conservation processes.

Collection items which are the focus in the A Just Legacy exhibition are the notebooks of Sir Archibald Paull Burt and the Judicial robes of Sir Francis Burt.

Sir Archibald Paull Burt KT QC

Was born in 1810 on St Kitts (formerly known as Saint Christopher), a British Colony in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. The Burt family were well established in government and plantation enterprise in the British West Indies since 1634.

Sir Archibald Paull Burt was educated in England and admitted to practice in Saint Christopher and Anguilla in 1830. He held a range of executive positions in St Christopher and in 1856 he served temporarily as Chief Justice before accepting the appointment as Civil Commissioner and Chairman of Quarter sessions in Western Australia. Sir Archibald Burt held the position of sole judge and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1861 until his death in 1879.

There are 41 notebooks written by Archibald Paull Burt in the Old Court House Law Museum Collection. They provide a record of almost every Civil and Criminal Supreme court trial in Western Australia and demonstrate the Chief Justice’s influence on the constitution and legal developments in the Colony. The collection includes personal notebooks which contain copies of his judicial, personal and business correspondence.

A Just Legacy details conservation processes and early discoveries and will include the first fully digitised and transcribed notebook for visitors to read. Each page of the notebook had to be photographed, and the handwriting transcribed into digital files which were converted into a digital flipbook to recreate the experience of physically reading the notebook. There is much more work to be done, converting the other notebooks into fully accessible digital files and this is part of the Museum’s mission to ensure its collection is fully accessible to the public and research field.

The notebooks provide a clear picture of a Chief Justice who was a meticulous record keeper and who seriously fulfilled his role in the stabilisation of the Swan River Colony by the administration of British law. The judgements, philosophies and politics within these notebooks reflect the values and endeavours of the British Government in the Colony of Western Australia and the values of Burt’s social class, a legacy which is inextricable from Western Australian history.

Sir Francis Theodore Page (Red) Burt AC QC

Grandson of Septimus Burt and great grandson of Archibald Paull Burt who was born in Perth in 1918 and studied at Guildford Grammar School and the University of Western Australia (UWA). After serving in the Second World War, he rose to prominence as a skilled and respected law practitioner; he lectured at UWA and mentored young lawyers, founded the Bar in Western Australia and was President of the Law Society. Sir Francis was the Chief Justice of Western Australia and Governor of Western Australia.

Sir Archibald Paull Burt was quite isolated in his position as sole judge in the colony. The life and legacy of Sir Francis reflects the changing attitudes and social structure in Western Australia through the relationship between judiciary and government executives and the people. Sir Francis Burt revolutionised the role of Chief Justice and actively fostered a positive relationship with the public. He lived by the ethos that the law should be accessible and understood by all Australians² ; this legacy is the inspiration of the Francis Burt Law Education Programme which operates from the Old Court House.

Alongside exhibiting the conservation and digitisation outcomes of the Supreme Court robes and the notebooks, the Museum is excited to launch a new short film and Museum resource. This film includes further insight into conservation practices at the Museum, including the behind-the-scenes process of “Operation Archibald” and includes interviews and footage of the conservators at work in laboratories and in the Museum collection.

A Just Legacy exhibition champions the work and unseen daily processes of the Old Court House Law Museum to ensure community connection and engagement with Western Australia’s cultural heritage continues well into the future. By highlighting a conservation focus, the Museum hopes to attract collaborations and encourage further support towards our mission to preserve heritage, and to expand the Museum’s impact and reach.

Meaning and interpretation evolve along with the development of social, cultural, political, and technical factors. The past and the present interact in a perpetual symbiotic relationship. Our understanding of the present is informed by the past; likewise our understanding of the past is informed by the present.

As the custodians of the Museum’s collection, it is important that we protect and share this heritage to allow continual reflection and conversation.

A Just Legacy – Behind the Scenes: The Burt Family Collection opened Tuesday, April 2.

The Old Court House Law Museum is located in Stirling Gardens and is open Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 4pm.