Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) the Fremantle Gaol.

1857		M.B. Hale Transportation Question 8: The men commit some offence against ticket-of-leave discipline, and are committed again to the Establishment.
1865		‘Spiritual correspondent’ Transportation 32: The men were removed to Fremantle Gaol [...] They are not detained long, however, at the ‘establishment’, or ‘college’ as it is termed [AND].
1872		Mission Life (Perth) 1 Aug. 166: The population consisting mostly of convicts, Goverment officials connected with the ‘Establishment’ as by an amusing euphemism the prison is styled [AND].
1878		G. Walch Australasia 47: The large gaol, or ‘Establishment’, as they politely term it.
1891		J.J. Roche Life of J. B. O’Reilly 69: The great white stone prison which is Fremantle’s reason for existence. It was ‘The Establishment’.
1897		Z.W. Pease Catalpa Exped. 114: Mr Breslin was invited to inspect the prison, ‘The Establishment’, as they call it in the colony.
1987		(con. 1850–68) R. Hughes Fatal Shore (1988) 578: The monument of the System in Western Australia was a long, low white building overlooking the sea at Fremantle – the convict barracks, known as the ‘Establishment’.