...and now that I know I've got your complete and undivided attention, let me tell you about today's adventures at the Old Melbourne Gaol.First off - I didn't know, until this week that is, that the word "gaol" is pronounced the same as "jail" - in fact, it's the older spelling of the word "jail". Which means that I've been mis-pronouncing that word in books for more years than I'd like to admit. :-)
We'd wanted to visit the Gaol because, while it is famous for having housed some of the most notorious criminals in Australia, it is by far the most famous for being the hanging place of that most famous of Australian bad guys, Ned Kelly. Embarrassingly, I had no idea who Ned Kelly was when I came to Australia - Jen had to bring me up to speed. In essence, he was a murderer and horse thief, but due to a whole series of circumstances he's ended up being revered as an extremely popular folk hero here - mostly for the way that he and his gang resisted arrest and for the home-made suits of armor they wore. If you'd like to read more about Ned Kelly's life of crime, there's lots of information on the "Ned Kelly: Iron Outlaw" website.
The Gaol was a fascinating place. It was built in the mid-1800's and over its lifetime, saw 136 hangings. The jail cells have mostly been converted into mini displays about various aspects of prison life. Like the prison we visited at Port Arthur in Tasmania, the inmates here spent a lot of their time in silence and isolation. Each prisoner had their own tiny cell with a solid door (not just bars), so when the doors were closed they were completely alone. When the prisoners were outside of their cells, they had to wear hoods over their faces and remain silent. Creepy!
I was more than a little creeped out by the deathmasks on display in many of the cells. Basically, after a convict was executed, a casting was taken of their face and from that, a sculpture of the person's head was made. In many of the cells in the Gaol, the masks were on display along with biographical information about each prisoner. Not all the condemned were men, either - I learned about a number of women who were hanged at the Gaol too. I thought that the range of people who had passed through the Gaol was interesting - the first two men to be hanged there were Aborigines, and the gallows didn't work properly at their executing, resulting in long, agonizing deaths. Some of the men who were hanged were hardened life-long criminals; others were discovered to be innocent long after they were dead. The womens' stories were equally varied, including one lady who poisoned her family and others who found themselves in desperate situations, prostituting themselves to keep bread on the table, or "baby farming", which means they ran completely inhumane daycares for other desperate young mothers.
We saw the gallows where Ned Kelly was hung, along with a fairly grisly display of items from the "hangman's trade", including nooses, restraining devices, and cat 'o' nine tails. We tried on a replica of Ned Kelly's famous armor and stared at his deathmask. In some of the cells, the museum staff had re-created what the cells would have looked like when they were inhabited by prisoners. Although these dioramas looked a little fake in real life, I was kinda surprised at how realistic they appear on camera! Check out my photos in my new album - "Melbourne - Part Three" for all the gory details.
Along with the self-guided tour of the Old Gaol, our ticket also included a guided tour of the City Watch House, which is right next door. Well! When we showed up for that tour, we discovered that it was one of those "reality" tours - so we were all treated as if we had just been arrested for various crimes! Sargent Flannigan, who took us all into custody, lined us up in rows and handed out our Charge Sheets. On each person's sheet it listed who we were representing and what our crimes had been, etc. Jen had been trafficking drugs, Irene was a thief, and I was arrested for stalking! We were all marched into the Watch House and booked. Then we underwent a full body search (minus the need for rubber gloves, as Sargent Flannigan pointed out, since we were tourists, ha ha! Phew!) and were taken down to our cells. The whole time, we were basically treated like prisoners. The City Watch House had been in use from the early 1900's to the mid 1990's - and basically when it was closed down and turned into a museum, they didn't remove ANYTHING. The site was preserved exactly as it was the day it shut down.
The entire site has been heritage listed for its historical importance. It was kinda nice, in a strange way, to see such an unlovely building so well-preserved for posterity. This included all the graffiti that was scrawled throughout the building! It was eerie, wandering the hallways once our brief incarceration was over, to read the graffiti that we knew had been placed there by real prisoners. It added another dimension to the whole experience.
The Watch House was a holding facility only; it's the place that detainees would be brought once they were arrested so they could await their trials. Hence the jail cells here were minimalist to put it mildly. In each cell (except the padded one; more on that later) there were three benches. Each cell could hold up to ten men. So apparently whomever was put in the cells first claimed the benches to sleep on, and everybody else had to sleep sitting up on the floor. Ick. There was a separate cell (with the words "love shack" scratched deeply into the door) set aside for sexual offenders, and a single cell and exercise yard set aside for females. The padded cell was used for detainees who might do harm to themselves or others. Naturally, Jen and I had to go inside to take a closer look, and Irene snapped a photo as evidence. (Gah.) At the end of the tour, another cell had been set up so we could take our own mug shots, which of course we did. Throughout the Watch House, audio installations played back actor's renditions of transcripts of what really went on in the jail. Again - creepy, but effective! Sure didn't make me want to spend the night there!
Apparently there are candlelight ghost tours of the Gaol and Watch House, but we took a pass. Entrance to the Gaol was fairly pricey (over $15 each, and no concession pricing!), and we didn't want to spend even more on the extra tour. But Jen and I have heard that there's a really good ghost tour of the jail in Perth, so when we're out that way in a few weeks, maybe we'll get to that one!
