Settler colonial panopticons: Emily Lanman, ‘Panopticons in the antipodes: why Bentham’s reforms found success in Western Australia’, Journal of Bentham Studies 24, 1, 2026 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonial panopticons: Emily Lanman, ‘Panopticons in the antipodes: why Bentham’s reforms found success in Western Australia’, Journal of Bentham Studies 24, 1, 2026

25Oct26

Abstract: Significant work conducted by Bentham scholars indicates that Benthamite ideas on penal reform were present in the Australian colonies. This has been demonstrated in part through discussions of a number of panoptic-inspired institutions across Australia. Despite this, there have been fewer debates on why the panopticon became a favoured tool for punishment in colonial settings rather than in Britain. This is significant as the first Australian colonies were established for the reception of imperial convicts, which Bentham argued against. Drawing on an analysis of the writings set out in A Picture of the Treasury, this article explores Bentham’s explanation of why the British government thwarted attempts to establish a panopticon penitentiary and his comments on what spurred its popularity in the colonies. It will do this by using as a case study Western Australia, where the panopticon was implemented in key penal institutions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such use of Western Australia is also significant. It was the first Australian colony to be established as a settler colony, which also signified a turning point in the invasion of Australia, as penal colonies were no longer the default method of colonisation. However, poor economic growth and limited labour led to the introduction of imperial convict labour from 1850 to 1868 in order to increase colonial development. The panoptic-inspired institutions that will underpin this case study are Fremantle Gaol (1831–56), which was the colony’s first purpose-built gaol, the prison for Aboriginal resistance prisoners, known as the Quod (1863–1904); and the radial yard built in New Division within Fremantle Prison (c. 1908–12). Through this analysis, this article seeks to uncover the circumstances that led to the deployment of the panopticon model, the people the institutions sought to reform and the events that resulted in their closure.

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