Fannie Bay Gaol is a historic

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

Fannie Bay, Northern Territory Fannie Bay is a middle/inner suburb of the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Situated in the suburb is the Fannie Bay Gaol museum, Fannie Bay Race Track, Fannie Bay Oval the home of the Port Darwin FC and a monument to Ross Smit ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The gaol operated as Her Majesty's Gaol and Labour Prison, from 20 September 1883 until 1 September 1979.

History

In 1888, Deputy Sheriff (and later Government Resident) John George Knight collected sketches and drawings made by Aboriginal prisoners to be displayed at the

Melbourne Centennial Exhibition The Melbourne Centennial Exhibition was organised to celebrate a century of European settlement in Australia. The Exhibition Building, constructed in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition, was extended and reused. The Centennial Exhib ...

under the title, The Dawn of Art. Dr Philip Jones, Senior Curator, Department of Anthropology, South Australian Museum, has called this the first exhibition of Aboriginal art. The last executions in Darwin were held at Fannie Bay Gaol in 1952, when Jerry Coci and Jonus Novotny, Czechoslovakian immigrants, were

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

for the murder of a taxi driver. The gallows were constructed especially for this

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

, in the infirmary. A pit was dug into the floor at one end of the building, with brick walls either side to support the beam. A small trapdoor and flight of steps led down into the pit for the doctor to examine the bodies after the drop. The prisoners were held in wire cages at the other end of the infirmary prior to execution. The gallows remain on public view, and visitors can push the lever that operated the trap. The prison was damaged, along with much of Darwin, by

Cyclone Tracy Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from 24 to 26 December 1974. The small, developing easterly storm had been observed passing clear of the city initially, but then turned t ...

in 1974. At first female prisoners were housed in the Gaoler's accommodation but in 1928 a female section was constructed and male and female prisoners were held in separate buildings. The female prison block included a small garden designed to keep the prisoners busy. There was also a block for children, which in the early 1970s was also used for refugees who had arrived by boat. Two cells were placed in the middle of the lawn for violent or mentally ill inmates. These cells included a small yard encased with cyclone fencing. Maximum security cells included hooks mounted into the walls for the restraint of inmates and very narrow doorways to prevent inmates escaping when a guard entered. The gaol was listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

in 1983 and on the

Northern Territory Heritage Register The Northern Territory Heritage Register is a heritage register, being a statutory list of places in the Northern Territory of Australia that are protected by the Northern Territory statute, the ''Heritage Act 2011''. The register is maintained b ...

in 1995. The gaol is now a museum open to the public.

Notable prisoners

* Harold Nelsonimprisoned in 1921 for his '

no taxation without representation "No taxation without representation" is a political slogan that originated in the American Revolution, and which expressed one of the primary grievances of the American colonists for Great Britain. In short, many colonists believed that as they ...

' campaign, that ultimately led to the Darwin Rebellion. *

Nemarluk Nemarluk (1911? – August 1940) was a fierce Aboriginal warrior who lived around present-day Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He fought strongly against both white and Japanese intruders who had come, unasked, into his people's trib ...

was wanted for the murder of three Japanese fishers from the ''Ouida'' near modern-day

Wadeye Wadeye ( ) is a town in Australia's Northern Territory. It was formerly known (and is still often referred to) as Port Keats. At the , Wadeye had a population of 2,280. Wadeye is the 6th most populous town, and the largest Indigenous community ...

in 1930 but evaded capture for two years. Eventually caught and awaiting trial, he escaped from a prison work party and was at large for a further six months. Although sentenced to hang, the sentence was commuted but he died of pneumonia while still serving time.

References

Bibliography

* Dewar, Mickey (1999). ''Inside-Out: A Social History of Fannie Bay Gaol''. Darwin: NTU Press. *Forrest, Peter (2002). "Last Men to Hang for Murder." ''Northern Territory News''. 6 August. *O'Toole, Sean (2006). ''The History of Australian Corrections''. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. *Troppo Architects (1996). ''Fannie Bay Gaol: A Structural History and Data Base.'' Vol. 1. Darwin.

External links

Fannie Bay Gaol
– Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory {{coord, 12, 25, 30, S, 130, 50, 11, E, region:AU-NT_type:city(109,419), display=title Maximum security prisons in the Northern Territory 1883 establishments in Australia 1979 disestablishments in Australia Defunct prisons in the Northern Territory Museums in Darwin, Northern Territory Prison museums in Australia Northern Territory Heritage Register Northern Territory places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate

History

Notable prisoners

See also

References

Bibliography

External links