Albany Convict Gaol also known as the Old Gaol is a restored gaol that operates as a museum in
Albany, Western Australia.
Description
Buildings within the gaol include the Great Hall, the warders' quarters and the cells. They are arranged around a central courtyard with a hiring depot located in the centre. The entire prison area is surrounded by stone walls studded with glass from broken bottles.
History
The gaol was established in 1852
for imperial convicts transported to Albany as
skilled labour
Skill is a measure of the amount of worker's expertise, specialization, wages, and supervisory capacity. Skilled workers are generally more trained, higher paid, and have more responsibilities than unskilled workers.
Skilled workers have long had ...
ers.
It initially consisted of a cell block for convicted men and quarters for the warden. The gaol was built with rehabilitation as a key principle and served not only to house inmates but as a hiring depot. Convicts who were sentenced to
transportation from England from between 1850 and 1868 often served their time in the gaol. Many of the convicts arriving had their
ticket of leave and were hired to work by the free settlers. Many worked on building the town jetty, manning the pilot boat and building the
road to Perth.
[
The gaol was extended in 1873 and became a public prison, with other buildings on the site being converted to housing for the town magistrates. ]Aboriginal
Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:
*Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
prisoners were moved into the prison as a result of the increasing number of escapes from the town prison in Lawley Park.Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
as a police lock-up.[ By 1941 the goal was put up for sale by the Public Works Department as it was declared unfit for habitation. It remained in a state of disrepair, but was restored between 1989 and 1996 to become a museum.][ In 2007, late night ]ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
tours of the gaol started.
See also
* List of reportedly haunted locations
* List of convict ship voyages to Western Australia
*
References
{{reflist
Museums in Western Australia
1852 establishments in Australia
Prison museums in Australia
Defunct prisons in Western Australia
Heritage places in Albany, Western Australia
Convictism in Western Australia
State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Albany