Fremantle Gaol...

Last Thursday DH and I headed south from Perth to start the next stage of our holiday. Because we'd run out of time on our first visit to Fremantle, our first stop was to do the tour of the old Fremantle Gaol.

http://www.visitfremantle.com.au/Operators/Fremantle-Prison

This Heritage Listed building was built by convicts in the 1850s and was known, not as a prison or gaol, but by the term 'Convict Establishment'.

 In early Aussie history involving European settlers, settlements were in the main, Penal colonies for men and women from the UK who had been sentenced to Transportation. Their crimes were often quite minor by today's standards but there were others who'd committed serious crimes.  

All 4 states on the east of coast of Australia started life as penal colonies, but Western Australia started as a free settlement. After a while the colonists agitated for convicts to be sent to WA, so their free labour could be used to build infrastructure such as roads, bridges and public buildings. And so it was that convicts built their own 'Convict Establishment' in Fremantle. 

After Transportation ceased it was used as a state prison. It was to continue to be used as a prison until being decommissioned in the 1990s. It had been built in style of the 19th Century British Prison model and had become hopelessly outdated and overcrowded. 

A wall built by the convicts is in the background of this next photo..

There are stories of a ghost that can be seen looking out the window of the chapel...that middle arched window. The ghost is supposed to be that of Martha Rendell, the only woman ever hanged at Fremantle Prison. But I couldn't see her. 🙄

Originally each cell contained 2 prisoners, but during the 20th Century, walls were taken out to make the cells larger...

DH and I did the 'Doing Time' Tour and it was lots of fun and extremely informative. Our guide treated us as prisoners one minute and then as tourists in the next moment...lots of laughs! 

Yes, even yours truly got into trouble! That young lady and I apparently dug a tunnel out of our cell, but instead of the tunnel coming up outside the walls...our tunnel came out under those flagstones where we're standing...hmm not too clever were we??? Lol

Just a few more photos...

The Church of England Chapel in the Gaol...the only place in the complex without bars on the Windows. 

I read that as the number of Catholic prisoners increased there was agitation for a Catholic Chapel. 

The remnants of the huge kitchens...

One of the exercise yards...

Barbed wire...

Our guide offered to take everyone's photo when we were on one of the walkways in one block...

The last stop on the tour was the gallows...rather confronting as our guide told us the process...

Aussie readers might remember Brendan Abbott, also named the 'Postcard Bandit'. Well it was from Fremantle Jail that he escaped and went on his armed robbery spree in Queenland...including the Commonwealth Bank in the next suburb to where I lived previously. 

The prison had a really serious riot in 1988 which probably precipitated its closure in 1991. 

There are a number of tours of this prison but we just did the one as we were heading south and had a bit of a drive to do. But it was well worth going back to Fremantle just to do the tour.