The Police Court was established at Melbourne, Port Phillip in October 1836 soon after Captain William Lonsdale arrived with instructions from Governor Sir Richard Bourke in Sydney to set up an arm of the Government of the Colony of New South Wales. Hearings began in the Police Court at Geelong soon after Captain Foster Fyans took up his appointment as Police Magistrate late in 1837. The earliest court records provide evidence of the wide range of cases heard and show impersonal terms the social problems and attitudes among the early settlers of Port Phillip. Study of the court records shows that the majority of charges were `drunk and disorderly: Charges of absconding or refusal to work on the part of assigned convicts or indentured free servants are also very numerous and were dealt with under the Masters and Servants Act. The penalties imposed reflect the values of the time when people were expected to `know their place' and to behave accordingly. In many of the cases a charitable and benevolent justice was administered. In others the judgements seem harsh to us. As far as the verdicts were concerned, all were equal before the law. Sentences usually varied for those found guilty of similar offences according to whether they were convict or free servants, city and country property owners or agents, or aborigines. The court findings were factual and fair, but the penalties varied with the offender. People who could afford to pay fines were very few, so that other penalties had to be imposed. Cases recorded in this document were by several Clerks of Court and those reproduced here are selected for their intrinsic interest. They are not a statistically representative sample.Crime And Punishment in Port Phillip 1836 to 1838police court, port phillip, captain william lonsdale, governor sir richard bourke, james lawrence, alfred boucher, michael malony, george frederick reid, joseph suthlerland