on 17 August 1866, after surveyor Charles Wedge drew a draft plan consisting of 106 lots, Roebourne became the first gazetted town in the North West. It became the region's administrative centre and various government buildings, shops, services and hotels set up business. Sholl himself served as Justice of the Peace, district registrar and magistrate, and he was concerned with the plight of the local indigenous people and made submissions to the Government to ensure they had basic rights. In 1872, the town was destroyed by a cyclone. Many of the buildings from shortly after this time are heritage-listed. A number of the heritage buildings were the work of the eminent Public Works Department architect George Temple-Poole. The Old Roebourne Gaol commenced construction in 1896, the stones being quarried and laid by Aboriginal prisoners who were detained there in extremely harsh conditions between 1896 and 1923. It was used again between 1975 and 1984 before the opening of a new Roebourne Regional Prison, which remains controversial as cells can swelter in 50-degree-Celsius temperatures with no air-conditioning. The site of the Withnells' house, which was rebuilt in 1937 by a later owner, is located on Hampton Street at the foot of Mount Welcome. Gold from Nullagine, discovered in 1878, and surrounding copper and tin mines contributed to Roebourne's prosperity in the 1880s and 1890s. With the decline of both, Roebourne lost the majority of its European population and became a shadow of its former self. Remnants from that era of prosperity are various National Trust buildings around the town. The area was struck by another cyclone in 1925 that destroyed the Port Samson jetty and lifted the bridge to Pope's nose from the river bed. Several buildings were also destroyed with the town's residents seeking refuge in public brick buildings during the storm. Until the 1960s, Roebourne was a non-indigenous town operating as a regional administrative centre, with strict controls and curfews placed on movement of Aboriginal people to, from and within the town. Most Aboriginal people were confined to camps and reserves a few kilometres away. However, as mining companies seeking to exploit the iron ore in the region constructed other company towns such as Dampier and Wickham for their workers, and as pastoralism declined, and with changing attitudes to Aboriginal welfare at governmental level in the late 1960s, Roebourne became a majority Aboriginal town as people moved out of