Who? What? When? Where? and Why?  Colin Rimington's book answers all these questions about the history of the Victorian Justice system.

He takes us back to the earliest days of Victoria's settlement and introduces the politicians, police, magistrates, even the criminals who played their parts in Melbourne and Victoria's development.

We are shown how the prison hulks developed into stockades on land, and explained the philosophy behind the construction of the prisons, many no longer occupied, and the building of courts which were built for conducting trials, both civil and criminal.

This book is, in many ways, an insight into an aspect of Victoria's social history about which little has been written elsewhere.  It is a valuable addition to the justice bibliography and even exposes a mystery or two.