Day 96 - Old Melbourne Gaol, St Kilda Beach & White Nights Festival, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Saturday 22nd February 2014. Melbourne Gaol & WHite Nights Festival, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

After breakfast we jumped on a couple of trams in order to visit the Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail) which is a museum and former prison located in Russell Street. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the Old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings.

During the 1830's a decision was made that a permanent prison was required for Port Philip and an area of land was alloted north of Melbourne, but it proved to be too small, so a second gaol was then built at the corner of Russell and La Trobe Streets, adjoining the then Supreme court in Melbourne. This second gaol was constructed between 1841 and 1844. The first cell block was opened for prisoners in 1845, but the facilities were considered inadequate; escapes occurring frequently. The gaol was already crowded by 1850 but With the discovery of gold in 1851 (when the Port Phillip District became the new Colony of Victoria), and the resulting influx of population, law and order became more difficult maintain. Subsequently, a new wing, with its own perimeter wall, was constructed between 1852 and 1854; the building using bluestone instead of sandstone.

The design was based on that of British prison engineer Joshua Jebb, and especially the designs for the Pentonville Model Prison in London (which suited the current prison reform theories at the time). The new wing was extended in between 1857 and 1859, with the boundary wall also being extended during this time. In 1860, a new north wing was built; which included entrance buildings, a central hall and chapel. Between 1862 and 1864, a cell block was built for female prisoners on the western side – it was basically a replica of the present east block (until this time, female convicts were not kept apart from the male prisoners). In 1864, the perimeter wall, and the gaol overall, was completed. During its operation as a prison between 1842 and 1929, it held and executed some of Australia's most notorious criminals, including bushranger Ned Kelly and serial killer Frederick Bailey Deeming.

At its completion, the prison occupied an entire city block, and included exercise yards, a hospital in one of the yards, a chapel, a bath house and staff accommodation. A house for the chief warders was built on the corner of Franklin and Russell streets, and 17 homes were built for gaolers on Swanston street in 1860. Artifacts recovered from the area indicate that even the gaolers and their families lived within the gaol walls in the 1850s and 1860s. The women's wing has been demolished but the original wing now constitutes the museum. In total, 133 people were executed by hanging. Though it was used briefly during World War II, it formally ceased operating as a prison in 1924; with parts of the gaol being incorporated into the RMIT University, and the rest becoming a museum.



We queued for our tickets and had 10 minutes to have a quick look round before we went down to the Old City Police Watch Station, 50 metres down the road,where we were to experience being 'arrested'. The watch leader opened the door and ushered us all inside, leaving M and D to close the door. We were all lined up in the long corridor which had cells on either side - the men on one side and the women on the other. Our policewoman explained how we had to say "yes sergeant" every time she gave us an instruction. We were put into the cells and locked in and all the lights were turned out so that we could see what it was like to be incarcerated in the cells - which had their own en-suite (a toilet in the corner). Up to 3 prisoners could occupy these cells at any one time. This was where people were kept before their trial. If Wthey were sentenced to do 'time' they would then be moved to the main gaol. We were shown the exercise yards and the padded cell where they put prisoners who could potentially self-harm. It was an entertaining tour.

We returned to the main museum where we were just in time for the next perfomance of the story of Ned Kelly. At the end of the main corridor there were seats and a small stage. The whole thing was performed by just 2 actors, a guy playing Ned Kelly and a lady who played his mother. They used members of the audience as extras. The play told of Ned's life from a child growing up in an Irish family persecuted by the law until his hanging here in this very gaol on the very gallows that remain here. We enjoyed it very much.

Now we had time to look at the exhibits and learn more about the gaol. The three-storey museum displays information and memorabilia of the prisoners and staff, including death masks of the executed criminals. At one time the museum displayed Ned Kelly's skull, before it was stolen in 1978; as well as the pencil used by wrongly convicted Colin Campbell Ross to protest his innocence in writing, before being executed. Paranormal enthusiasts claim the museum is haunted, with claims of ghostly apparitions and unexplained voices near cells.

Much of daily life inside the gaol could be gleaned from sources such as diaries written by John Castieau, governor of the gaol between 1869 and 1884. During its operation, the gaol was used to house short-term prisoners, lunatics and as well as some of the colony’s most notorious and hardened criminals. It also housed up to twenty children at a time – including those imprisoned for petty theft or vagrancy, or simply those staying with a convicted parent. Babies under twelve months old were allowed to be with their mothers. The youngest prisoner was recorded as three-year old Michael Crimmins, who spent 6 months in the prison in 1857 for being idle and disorderly. In 1851, the 13 and 14-year old O'Dowd sisters were imprisoned because they had nowhere else to go.

Prisoners convicted of serious crime, such as murder, arson, burglary, rape and shooting, would begin their time on the ground floor with a time of solitary confinement. They were also forbidden from communicating with other prisoners, which was strictly enforced by the usage of a silence mask, or calico hood, when they were outside their cells. They would only be given a single hour of solitary exercise a day, with the remaining 23 hours spent in their cells. Inside the cells, prisoners would be able to lie on a thin mattress over the slate floors. They could only bathe and change clothes once a week, and attend the chapel on Sundays (with a Bible provided to promote good behaviour). Prisoners might only have been allowed to finally socialise with other prisoners towards the end of their sentences.

The routine for prisoners was regulated by a system of bells, and enforced by punishments; prisoners who obeyed the rules would be promoted to the second floor – whereby they would be allowed to work in the yards everyday. Male prisoners would perform hard labour – including breaking rocks, and other duties in the stone quarries, while women would sew, clean and cook. Women would also make shirts and waistcoats for male prisoners, as well as act as domestic servants for the governor and his family. Prisoners who had become trusted, those nearing the completion of their sentence, and debtors, were housed on the third floor communal cells. These top level cells were large, and held up to six prisoners at time; and were mostly reserved to prisoners convicted of minor crimes such as drunkenness, vagrancy, prostitution or petty theft.

During its operation, the gaol was the setting for 133 hangings. The most infamous was that of bushranger Ned Kelly at the age of 25, on 11 November 1880. After a two-day trial, Kelly was convicted of killing a police officer. As stated by law at the time, executed prisoners were buried (without head) in unmarked graves in the gaol burial yard. The head was normally removed from the body as part of the phrenological study of hanged felons. Historian and associate professor of Wollongong University John McQuilton states that the lack of monitoring for burial processes was odd, given Victorian society's normally brilliant attention to detail. The first hanging of a woman in Victoria, Elizabeth Scott, was performed in the prison on 11 November 1863 – along with her co-accused, Julian Cross and David Gedge. The last person to be executed was Angus Murray in 1924, the same year the gaol was closed.

As of 2010, the gaol is recognised as Victoria's oldest surviving penal establishment, and attracts approximately 140,000 visitors per year. The cells have been filled with information about individual prisoners, which also serve to illustrate the history of Melbourne itself. Each one was fascinating, if a little macabre. All of the execute criminals had death masks made after their hanging. These were exhibited in the cells, together with the story of their crimes. It really brought everthing to 'life' having the death masks on show.

Other memorabilia included an iron mask, and a pair of leather gloves designed to prevent inmates from self-abusing. Some of the most interesting exhibits include Ned Kelly's death mask, pistol and replica of his suit of armour, as well as the pencil used by Colin Ross to write a letter protesting his innocence, which he threw over the prison walls. We were fascinated by all of it. When we left we both agreed that this was definitely one of the most interesting museums we had been to - particularly as the topic it covered was very narrow.

After the gaol we walked around the corner to the Victoria State Library where they had the original Ned Kelly Armour. We watched a movie about how it was fashioned from the metal used to make ploughs. It was very interesting indeed. As a bonus there was an exhibition called "Mirror of the World". This was a fascinating collection of books, comics, manuscripts and magazines. There was a copy of the Manuscript by the Parrot of India dating from 1599-1600. Early illustrated books which with hand painted pictures like the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, Major Mitchell's parrot, Eclectus Parrot and Red Cheeked Parrot Illustrations from the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. These paintings were absolutely beautiful and incredibly detailed. There was a 1st Edition copy of Paradise Lost by John Milton and some early Marvel Comics. Really good - we had never seen anything quite like this before.

In the afternoon we went to South Melbourne Beach but it was raining and seemed to be mainly a ferry port. We jumped on another tram and went to St Kilda beach which was much nicer. We watched the kite surfers and strolled along the seafront and took some photos of the pier.

We returned to the YH and had dinner (all day breakfast x 2) at Glen's cafe. M telephoned her cousin Ian again and this time he was at home. They have arranged to meet tomorrow evening. M is very excited. We were a little tired but forced ourselves out on to Melbourne's streets as tonight was the White Nights festival which is only held once a year from 7 pm tonight until 7 am tomorrow morning. The White Nights are a kind of all-night arts festival held in many cities in the summer. The original festival is the White Nights Festival held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The white nights is the name given in areas of high latitude to the weeks around the summer solstice in June during which sunsets are late, sunrises are early and darkness is never complete. In Saint Petersburg, the Sun does not set until after 10 p.m., and the twilight lasts almost all night.

Melbourne, held its inaugural White Night festival on 23 February last year and an estimated crowd of more than 300,000 people attended. Tonight's festival was extimated to attract 500,000 people. This was where we had a problem - M doesn't do crowds and it was heaving. The event featured music, dance, visual display, light show, and a variety of buskers. Art institutions such as The National Gallery of Victoria and The Australian Centre for the Moving Image featured free exhibitions and films for the public to attend. THe queue's were horrendous. We listened to some of the live music but M didn't like the sardine feeling of being completely surrounded. We went to look at the purple rain show but the queue was over two blocks long. We gave up and went back to the YH.

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