Adelaide Gaol
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A former gaol in Adelaide, in fact the oldest and longest-operating prison in South Australia, opened in 1840/41 and decommissioned in 1988, after which it was converted into a visitor attraction. The fact that the preserved facility was closed only so recently (comparatively speaking) makes for a grim impression of what imprisonment was like in the second half of the 20th century.
More background info: After the founding of the new state of South Australia and its capital Adelaide, captured criminals were initially housed in shackles aboard ships, but soon came calls for a proper prison on land. Construction was begun in 1840 and at the end of that year and early 1841 the first prisoners arrived.
Over the years the site was expanded and altered. The older part is roughly semi-circular in shape, with five cell blocks radiating from the core where a watchtower overlooking all the yards between the blocks was eventually erected.
The most significant enlargement was the construction of what was and still is called simply the “New Building” in 1878; it began operations in 1879. This T-shaped large cell block stands to the south of the original prison and has its own gate.
In the course of the 20th century, better sanitary conditions were provided, though still basic. In 1970 one of the old cell blocks was demolished and replaced with a new one to serve as a remand prison.
The gaol was also used as an execution site. A total of 45 executions took place here, more than two thirds of all in South Australia. The first few were hanged in public executions outside the prison walls, but from 1858 all executions had to be in “private”. There was a mobile gallows until one of the old guard towers in the outer prison wall was converted into a “Hanging Tower” in 1950. The last execution here took place in 1964. The New Building also had its own gallows.
Amongst those hanged at the prison was the only woman ever to be executed in South Australia, Elizabeth Woolcock, in 1873 for murdering her husband (who may have been abusive) by means of poisoning with mercury. She is buried between the inner and outer walls of the prison just like several male prisoners who were executed here too. So the prison is also a graveyard.
In the prison’s final years modern security systems were installed including the large CCTV cameras you can still see dotted around, which were added as late as 1984. Only four years later the prison was decommissioned and all remaining inmates transferred to other, newer facilities.
The conversion into a tourist attraction was fairly light, with only a few structures removed and facilities such as lavatories, the gift shop and a few exhibitions added. Most of the cell blocks are more or less in their original condition.
For a short while after the place had opened as a museum, there was the option of staying overnight in genuine prison cells, but that practice was discontinued in 2007 because of safety concerns. These days, though, visitors so inclined can book specially prepared cells converted into “escape rooms”. That’s a common game-like activity offered in many places around the world, except here the rooms are in an actual prison.
What there is to see: When you’ve found your way to the site and paid your admission fee you’re given a map of the complex that shows the preset circuit through the compound.
First you come to the Central Circle and former Visitor Centre as well as the prison’s bell (which would have been rung during executions). The Visitor Centre consists of a semi-circular arrangement with seats for visitors on the outside (but under a protective roof) and seats for prisoners on the other side of the separating glass “windows”. Behind the row of prisoners’ seats is a desk, presumably for guards.
This is just behind the “Sally Port” behind the main prison gate. Here a screen plays a video about Governor Ashton.
To the left of the Visitor Centre is the former Medical Centre, fully reconstructed, with furnishings and medical supplies – as well as dummy doctor sitting at a desk. Next door is also a dental practice with a dentist chair but no dummy dentist in situ.
You then enter Two Yard (One Yard is not accessible) and come to the first original cells, which were very sparsely furnished. You can only see some ground floor cells, access to the upper floor(s) is not possible. All stairwells are fenced off. There’s also a so-called “contemplation cell” where various sentiments that prisoners might have had are plastered all over the wall on little notes. The one that struck me as the most realistic said simply “I’m so bored”.
In the back of Two Yard is an archaeological dig site that was left as it was after the excavations. Finds are exhibited in an adjacent room. At the rear of the yard is a “waste disposal unit” – basically a flush toilet with a large box on top, used for emptying night pots into.
Then you continue into Three Yard and then Four Yard. Apart from yet more cells (some not only furnished but also inhabited by dummy prisoners), you can also see the gaol library, a store/canteen, where prisoners could have bought items such as snacks or cigarettes, inmates’ lavatories, guard offices and a rose garden, originally begun by a female prisoner in the 1920s. An especially grim place are the “condemned cells”, in which inmates sentenced to death were held before their execution.
Moving in and out of the yards you can see the gaol’s central watchtower, complete with a dummy guard on watch duty. From up there the guards could look into the separate yards at the same time. Nearby on ground level is a phone booth, installed in the 1970s, from where privileged prisoners were allowed to make (monitored) phone calls.
All along the way, information panels provide relevant background to the various parts of the prison you get to see and how they functioned.
There are also various exhibitions in some of the blocks, including one about women at the gaol, but the main museum exhibition is in the block next to Five/Six Yard (where the separation wall had been removed) inside an old former cell block. The exhibition covers gaol-related topics such as prisoners’ work, escape attempts, contraband, corporal punishment (e.g. on a flogging rack) and, darkest of all, hangings. At one section you can try your hand at picking locks … I had a half-hearted attempt and failed miserably.
You can have a look around Five/Six Yard with its separate toilet and shower block, and then move on into the remand cell block with its colourful cell doors.
After this you emerge into the space between the inner and outer prison walls at one of the two stone watchtowers set into the outer wall. The inner walls are topped with “honeycomb” bricks – not cemented together but just balanced at the top. If a prisoner had tried to scale such a wall the noise of falling bricks would have alerted the guards. In other places the walls are crowned by rolls of barbed wire, sometimes several rolls on top of each other. At various points you can see the large CCTV cameras that had been installed in the 1980s.
The grimmest parts are the gallows. There are two here, a mobile one made of wood as would have been used in the 1800s. And then there is the “Hanging Tower”, where later executions were conducted. You can see the beam from which the nooses would have hung, the holding cells for the condemned, and there’s also a screen playing a video about serial killer John Balaban who was hanged here in 1953.
Moving on between the inner and outer wall you pass the markings that cryptically identify the graves of those executed at the prison. The one for Elizabeth Woolcock (see above) is specially marked by a panel with a QR code by means of which you can activate extra audio material.
After that you pass the Boiler Room, the Laundry and the Bakery and Kitchen, none of which are accessible inside, before coming to the entrance to the separate prison complex with the T-shaped “New Building” (see above). Some of the cell windows have little roofs above them on the outside – a measure to prevent the passing of contraband from a cell above to the one below.
In one of the courtyards is a green lawn with a marquee with bunting – apparently for weddings (for which the venue can be hired – see below). It’s a surprising contrast with all the prison grimness, but apparently there is a market for such things as wedding in these surroundings.
The cell blocks in the three wings of the “New Building” to me exuded the grimmest atmosphere of all the blocks in this prison – see the photos below. You can only explore the ground floor as the access stairs to the upper level are all blocked. But through the mesh floors you can see a group of dummy guards on the upper level. There are also smaller exhibition parts with stories about particular prisoners and there’s another screen, this time playing a video about prison officers.
This concludes the circuit and you then make your way back to the administration building with the ticket desk, museum shop and exit.
All in all I found this museum prison far more impressive, and also darker, than the more famous Old Melbourne Gaol or Port Arthur. This is partly because this site covers not only the “olden days” of imprisonment, but also comparatively recent times not so distant from present-day prisons. To me the commodification strikes an excellent balance, too, between being informative but not too taxing, not overloading visitors with too much text. The exhibitions may in part look a little old-school and even somewhat amateurish in places, but I found them just right. I’m not a big fan of information being put on interactive screens for visitors to scroll through, so the fact that this museum doesn’t have such modern elements and employs just three video screens was most welcome to me. And the interactive elements in the main exhibition were more of the physical, hands-on sort.
Moreover, the prison is real feast for those like me who are into photography – hence the gallery below is a bit larger than normal for a site like this.
Location: to the north-west of the inner city centre of Adelaide, within the parklands that surround it, a bit under 2 km (1.15 miles) from Victoria Square in the very centre of the city.
Google Maps locator: [-34.9177, 138.5849]
Access and costs: slightly convoluted access at times, but not too hard to find; average pricing.
Details: When I came to visit Adelaide and this prison, I had booked a hotel on the western end of North Terrace, from where it should have been walkable, first along Port Road, then turning left into Gaol Road, which would have led me straight to the door. That should have taken ca. 15 minutes. However, Gaol Road was blocked at the time due to construction work for the expansion of a nearby hospital complex. Fortunately I had checked the website of the prison and thus had forewarning. The website suggested getting a taxi, but at the hotel reception it was pointed out that there was no public road access from the other side, so I was advised to take a tram from the nearby stop at the end of North Terrace and go one stop to Thebarton (still within the free tram rides of Adelaide CBD) and to walk it from there through Bonython Park. While the first part of that walk was quite pleasant, finding the other end of Gaol Road was a bit fiddly and affected by roadworks. But it did take me to the entrance from around the rear. Whether Gaol Road will reopen to make for a simpler walk from the city centre to the gaol, I don’t know.
Opening times: daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., last admission at 3 p.m.; closed only on Christmas Day.
Admission: 17 AUD (in late 2024), some concessions apply.
For extra fees, the prison museum also offers “education tours” (mainly aimed at school groups), children’s parties (sic!), “escape room” cells (either for adults or for kids), and a few outside tour operators offer the inevitable “ghost tours” within the prison, usually at times outside the regular opening times (in the evening). You can also go on a special “E.W.” audio tour, themed along the story of Elizabeth Woolcock (see above) by scanning the QR codes provided at four different locations within the prison complex, including at her grave.
The prison, and in particular the “New Building” (see above), can even be hired for events such as weddings, conferences and concerts. This might mean that on some event days the prison may be closed to the general public and no tours can run.
Time required: the prison’s website recommends one hour, but my visit took over 90 minutes and there would have been scope for even longer. In my case that was mainly because the gaol proved to be so good for photography (see below). If you want to see, read and watch everything there is, then you may need even more than two hours. To be honest, though, most other visitors I saw moved on much more quickly than my wife and I did.
Combinations with other dark destinations: see under Adelaide.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Adelaide.
