The ceremonial mace of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia is the oldest extant mace in Australia and a brilliant symbol of parliamentary authority.
However, it is more than a gleaming relic. For nearly 140 years, it has marked the Assembly’s power to meet, debate, and legislate, embodying the privileges and independence of the House without which democratic government could not function.
The story of the mace begins in Westminster when, on the eve of the battle of Agincourt, King Henry V gave one of his royal serjeants-at-arms to the House of Commons to ‘attend upon all his Parliaments’. The mace was the weapon of office for royal serjeants-at-arms and, by the 16th century, the House of Commons was using it not just as the serjeant’s weapon but as a literal instrument of privilege.
In the case of George Ferrers in 1543, the House of Commons successfully challenged the City of London authorities after a Member of the Commons was arrested for debt when the House was sitting. Ferrers was released “by their Serjeant without writ, only by shew of his mace, which was his warrant”. As John Hatsell later recorded in Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons, this episode marked an early assertion of parliamentary independence, establishing that Members are free from arrest when the House is sitting, and that the mace (particularly in a largely illiterate society) was a tangible warrant of the House’s authority.
Western Australia’s mace was commissioned in 1887 to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Designed locally by jewelling prodigy Vincent Edward Nesbit (who tragically drowned off Cottesloe five years later), and manufactured by master goldsmith Salis Schlank in Adelaide, it first appeared in 1888 before Speaker James Lee-Steere in the Legislative Council. Two years later, it was transferred to the newly created Legislative Assembly with the grant of responsible government (and born before the inaugural Speaker James Lee-Steere). Bearing the Crown and Queen Victoria’s cypher, yet adorned with native Western Australian emblems such as black swans and native flora, the mace embodies both imperial tradition and the State’s unique identity.
Today, the mace continues to represent the authority of the Speaker and the House. It is not placed on the Table until after a Speaker has been elected, signifying that the Assembly is properly constituted and empowered to act until that occurs. When present, it visibly marks the House’s authority, and it even accompanies the Speaker when a sitting is suspended and they leave the Chamber. The mace travels with the presiding officer, reinforcing the idea that parliamentary authority is inseparable from the office of the Speaker.
Privileges such as freedom from arrest in civil matters, freedom of speech, and the right of the House to regulate its own proceedings remain essential to the functioning of Parliament. The mace stands as a constant reminder of these hard-won rights, linking the Assembly to centuries of parliamentary tradition and asserting that its authority is derived not from personal power or executive favour, but from constitutional mandate.
Western Australia’s 1887 mace is therefore more than a historical artefact—it is a living symbol of parliamentary privilege, a testament to the enduring authority of the Parliament and the liberties it safeguards.
