The Old Melbourne Gaol is a museum and former prison located in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Currently it consists of a bluestone building and courtyard and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings (both now occupied by RMIT University).
A land allotment of scrub to the north-east of the town was selected as Port Philip's first permanent gaol. It was modelled on Pentonville Prison, England, building of the first Gaol began during 1841 and gradually enlarged and changed until 1864. 1845 the wall ended and the outside dirt track became Russell Street. 1848 superintendent of the gaol was George Wintle. Gold rush crimes from 1851 saw a need to enlarge the prison. A second cell block, an extension on the north side of the original, was erected beginning 1852 and finished by 1858.
The first woman to be hanged at this gaol and also the first in Victoria was Elizabeth Scott on 11 November 1863 along with her co-accused, Julian Cross and David Gedge. During the 1850s 58 men were hanged in Victoria. The design of the new cell blocks is attributed to Henry Ginn, Chief Architect of the CVPWD. his design's were based on the universal specifications of the British prison engineer Joshua Jebb, or radiating cell blocks, a most modern design and had many features for prisoner control, it even had a crude form of a ventilation system, this system was a thermo-ventilation system, ducts were built into the walls and fed to a furnace but this system was never completed or brought into operation . The west wing cell block held female prisoners .
The bluestone walls with turret watchtowers were completed by 1864 and then demolished during the Great Depression of the 1930s to create a sea retaining wall at St Kilda; and then at Hampton which is also a beach-side suburb of Melbourne. It was later found to be laid with bricks that had the names and date of execution. A total of 14 marked bricks were found, one of which read "M.N 22.10.94", referring to Martha Needle, who was convicted of poisoning her husband, 3 children and brother-in-law, and was hanged on 22 October 1894. At St Kilda beach, this retaining wall is the one that swimmers lay their backs to from the grass. It borders the raised walkway and sand of the beach-front with bluestone.
Housing for other guards were 17 smaller homes along Swanston Street as of 1860 and the Chief Warden’s house was a palatial 2-story affair on the corner of Russell Street and facing Franklin Street built during the 1890s
The jail was closed in 1924 when Police stables were constructed. By 1924 it was a run-down structure; then parts of the Gaol were demolished. For a short time it was used as a Military prison during World War II. Later it was used as a storage facility for the Victoria Police Force whose headquarters were nearby in Russell Street. In 1972, the Gaol was reopened in its current role as a public museum.
The gaol was the setting for 135 hangings, the most infamous being that of bushranger Ned Kelly in 1880.
Name | Year of birth | Date of execution | Crime |
---|---|---|---|
Bob | January 20, 1842 | Murder | |
Jack | January 20, 1842 | Murder | |
Charles Ellis | June 28, 1842 | Shooting | |
Martin Fogarty | June 28, 1842 | Shooting | |
Daniel Jepps | June 28, 1842 | Shooting | |
Roger | September 5, 1842 | Murder | |
Jeremil Connell | January 27, 1947 | ||
Bobby | April 30, 1847 | ||
Ptolemy | April 30, 1847 | ||
John Healey | November 29, 1847 | Murder | |
Augustus Dancey | August 1, 1848 | ||
Patrick Kennedy | October 18, 1851 | ||
James Barlow | May 22, 1852 | ||
John Richie | November 3, 1852 | ||
George Pinkerton | April 4, 1853 | ||
Aaron Durrant | July 11, 1853 | ||
John Smith | August 23, 1853 | ||
Henry Turner | August 23, 1853 | ||
William Atkins | October 3, 1853 | ||
George Wilson | October 3, 1853 | ||
George Melville | October 3, 1853 | ||
Michael Finnessy | October 25, 1853 | ||
Alexander Ram | October 25, 1853 | ||
John Smith | November 23, 1853 | ||
Joseph West | December 27, 1853 | ||
William Twiggem | 1824 | March 2, 1857 | Murder |
Chu-a-Luk | 1827 | March 2, 1857 | Murder |
Samuel Gibbs | November 12, 1858 | Murder | |
George Thompson | November 12, 1858 | Murder | |
Thomas McGee | February 19, 1863 | ||
Julian Cross | November 11, 1863 | Murder | |
David Gedge | November 11, 1863 | Murder | |
Elizabeth Scott | 1840 | November 11, 1863 | Murder |
James Bennett | December 1, 1863 | ||
Christopher Harrison | August 3, 1864 | ||
William Carver | August 3, 1864 | ||
Samuel Woods | August 3, 1864 | ||
John Stacey | April 5, 1865 | ||
Joseph Brown | May 5, 1865 | ||
Peter Dotsalaere | July 6, 1865 | ||
Robert Bourke | November 29, 1866 | ||
Bernard Cunningham | March 31, 1868 | ||
Joseph Whelan | March 31, 1868 | ||
Michael Flannigan | 1833 | March 31, 1869 | Murder |
James Ritson | August 3, 1869 | ||
Patrick Smith | August 4, 1870 | ||
James Cusik | August 30, 1870 | ||
James Sury | November 14, 1870 | ||
Patrick Geary | December 4, 1871 | ||
Edward Feeney | May 14, 1872 | ||
An Gaa | August 30, 1875 | ||
Henry Howard | October 4, 1875 | ||
John Taylor (aka Weechurch) | 1830 | December 6, 1875 | attempted murder |
Basilo Bondietto | December 11, 1876 | ||
William Hastings | March 14, 1877 | ||
Ned Kelly | 1854 | November 11, 1880 | Murder |
James Hawthorn | August 21, 1884 | Murder | |
William O'Brien | October 24, 1884 | Murder | |
William Barnes | May 15, 1885 | Murder | |
Freeland Morell | 1847 | January 6, 1886 | Murder |
George Symes | November 8, 1888 | Murder | |
Filipe Castillo | 1869 | September 16, 1889 | Murder |
Robert Landells | 1837 | October 16, 1889 | Murder |
John Thomas Phelan | 1861 | March 16, 1891 | Murder |
John Wilson | 1868 | March 23, 1891 | Murder |
Fatta Chand | April 27, 1891 | Murder | |
William Coulston | August 24, 1891 | Murder | |
Frederick Deeming | May 23, 1892 | Murder | |
John Conder | August 28, 1893 | Murder | |
Frances Lydia Alice Knorr | 1867 | January 15, 1894 | Murder |
Ernest Knox | 1873 | March 19, 1894 | Murder |
Frederick Jordan | 1864 | August 20, 1894 | Murder |
Martha Needle | 1864 | October 22, 1894 | Murder |
Arthur Buck | 1868 | July 1 , 1895 | Murder |
Emma Williams | November 4, 1895 | Murder | |
Charles Strange | 1874 | January 13, 1896 | Murder |
Alfred Archer | 1866 | November 21, 1898 | Murder |
William Robert Jones | February 21, 1900 | Murder | |
Albert McNamara | April 14, 1902 | Arson | |
August Tisler | October 20, 1902 | Murder | |
James Williams | 1885 | September 8, 1904 | Murder |
Joseph Victor Pfeiffer | April 12, 1912, | Murder | |
John Jackson | January 24, 1916 | Murder | |
Antonio Picone | September 18, 1916 | Murder | |
Albert Budd | January 29, 1918 | Murder | |
Arthur Geoffrey Oldring | April 15, 1918 | Murder | |
Colin Campbell Ross | 1892 | April 24, 1922 | Murder - pardoned 86 years later |
Angus Murray | 1882 | April 14, 1924 | Murder |
The building is currently a museum drawing thousands of tourists annually. The Gaol is open every day except Good Friday and Christmas, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm, and special candlelight night tours can also be arranged.
The Old Melbourne Gaol is Victoria's oldest surviving penal establishment. It currently exhibits 19th century gaol life, including the death masks and memorabilia of some of Melbourne's most notorious criminals, including the death mask of notorious bushranger Ned Kelly. At the age of 25 years, he was convicted of killing one police officer, Lonigan, after a two-day trial, Edward "Ned" Kelly was executed 11 November 1880. A skull which is said to be Ned Kelly's was also on display for many years but thieves stole the skull in 1978 and it has never been recovered. It remains a mystery as to whether the skull actually was Kelly's in the first place. His body was buried within the gaol grounds , from 1865 all the hanged convicts were buried on the grounds, up until then they were buried in a local cemetery.
The tour guides delight in telling stories of ghosts, or photos being taken containing "ectoplasm" and the cells are small and quite scary. Parapsycologist (Ghost Hunters) have spent a night and claim to have recorded the voice of a woman, calling out "help"!. The first woman to be hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol was Elizabeth Scott, she was sentenced to be hanged at Beechworth Courthouse, but because the Beechworth Gaol was not complete she was brought to Melbourne and hanged at the Gaol. Three more female executions would eventually follow. This figure is far surpassed by the number of men executed at the Gaol - 131 in total.