Birdsville Courthouse Experience

Explore the digital archive and experience court hearings from the past.

For a century the building served as a courthouse, police administration and residence for officers and their families. Over the years, a few cell blocks were built as one would collapse and another constructed to replace it, while further out the back there is the final Tracker's Hut, built in 1948. From 1980 police families moved into the modern residence next door, and then in 1988 administration was transferred from the court room to the current police station.

What makes this courthouse unique to the state is that it was built with masonry rather than timber. What makes it worthy of being on the Queensland Heritage Register is its link with the earliest establishment of pastoral settlement in the district, and Birdsville's role as a border and customs post.