Some interesting facts....
- The Prison was opened in 1850, and was built by prisoners who dug limestone from the hill on which the prison now sits.
- The size of each cell was 4' x 7' - barely enough room to fit a human.
- Electricity was not introduced in the cells until 1982. Finally a prisoner was able to watch a little TV or listen to the radio!
- There was no running water in the cells, at all, ever. This continued until the closure of the prison in 1991!
- If you needed to go to the loo in the middle of the night, you used a bucket which was placed on the floor. Remember, no running water. Imagine the smell! No washing hands here......
- The buckets were emptied each day into a big drain. Yeech.
- There was a time in the late 1800s when convict numbers declined, so they knocked down a wall between every 2 cells to enlarge them.
- Unfortunately, prisoner numbers increased so they decided to put double-bunk beds in the double-sized cells. Now 2 men shares a cell 8' x 7', and shared a bucket to use as their toilet. Remember, no running water, no washing hands. Right up until 1991!!!
- Punishment in the prison included the administration of lashing from a cat-o-nine-tails. One lashing would create welts on your back, the second lashing would break those welts, and well, by 6 lashings your back looked like a slab of beef. A doctor was always present to step in and stop the proceedings in the event of this punishment being life-threatening. You would be sent to the prison hospital where you were allowed to recover, then, you would be sent back to receive the balance of your lashings! Ye-ouch!! The last lashing occurred in 1943.
- A massive riot occurred in 1988 during a day of temperatures over 52 degrees, as a result of the appalling conditions; and eventually it was decided that the prison had to be upgraded or closed. It was closed.
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| This toilet is loacted in the Yard. The Yard is the most dangerous place for a prisoner, and rapes and murders here were common. The Yard has no roof and no shleter, is open to the weather, is extremely hot in summer and cold in winter. 160 prisoners are placed here for 16 hours a day. There is one guard, who sits in a cage-like structure at one end of the Yard, and who cannot see (or does not see) everything that occurs here. |
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| Late in the Prison's life, prisoners are allowed to paint the walls. You will not see a painting of a person or a building. Every painting is of fresh air, trees and the sea. Freedom. |
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| During the riots, men lit rolls of toilet paper and threw them up into the wooden roof, which burned down. |
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| Note the cyclone-fencing in the bottom right of this photo. This is a suicide net - it prevents men from dying, should they hurl themselves off an upper balcony. |
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| A typical look at a prison cell when the prison opened. |
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| Note the bucket on the floor! In the 1970s they experimented with chemical toilets but found the prisoners simply drank the fluid because it contained alcohol! |
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| A cell which has been doubled to 7' x 8' is now shared by 2 prisoners (with one bucket). |
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| An incredible painting by an aboriginal prisoner. He was allowed to retain this beautiful rendition in his cell. |
Below is a movie I took of cell A91. "Pegleg" the prisoner was a violent serial rapist whose temper could only be calmed by painting. Although painting in cells at this time was strictly banned, they made an allowance for Pegleg so as to keep him pacified. "An enigma", they called him, and sometimes, "a genuis." Pegleg remains in gaol to this day (at Casuarina). I wonder if he still dapples in watercolour?
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