Location | Coburg |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°44′21″S144°58′9″E / 37.73917°S 144.96917°E |
Status | Closed, under redevelopment |
Security class | Maximum security |
Opened | 1851 |
Closed | May 1, 1997 |
Former name | Pentridge Stockade [1] [2] [3] |
Street address | Champ Street |
City | Melbourne |
State/province | Victoria |
Postal code | 3058 |
Country | Australia |
Official name | HM Prison Pentridge |
Type | State Registered Place |
Designated | August 20, 1982 |
Reference no. | H1551 [4] |
Heritage Overlay number | HO47 [4] |
HM Prison Pentridge, better known as Pentridge Prison, was an Australian prison established in 1851 in Coburg, Victoria. The first convicts arrived at the gaol in 1851. The facility closed on 1 May 1997, although some of the heritage-listed buildings still stand. [5]
Pentridge was often referred to as the "Bluestone College", "Coburg College" or "College of Knowledge". The grounds were originally landscaped by landscape gardener Hugh Linaker. [6]
The site is split into two parts. The northern part of the prison, referred to as the "Pentridge Coburg" or "Pentridge Piazza" site, is bordered by Champ Street, Pentridge Boulevard, Murray Road and Stockade Avenue. [7] It is under development by the developer Shayher Group, who has owned the site since 2013. The southern part of the prison, referred to as the "Pentridge Village" site, is bordered by Pentridge Boulevard, Stockade Avenue, Wardens Walk and Urquhart Street. [8] It is partially owned by the developer, Future Estate. D Division is owned privately by Pentridge Cellars Pty Ltd.
The prison was split into divisions, named using letters of the alphabet.
In 2014, archaeological work in the former prison grounds led to the discovery of three rare panopticons (named after Jeremy Bentham's prison design of 1791) located near the A and B Divisions that were built of bluestone in the 1850s. The first uncovered and excavated was to the north of A division. The circular design, with walls coming out from the centre, created wedge shaped 'airing yards' where prisoners would be permitted access for one hour per day without coming into contact with each other. The panopticons fell out of use, due to prison overcrowding, and were largely demolished in the early 1900s. [9] The panopticons were based on the design concepts of British philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham. The footings of the first panopticon that was excavated and uncovered is located to the north of A Division and remains relatively intact. The excavation and uncovering of the other two panopticons next to B Division only revealed the remains of its rubble footings.
Jika Jika, opened in 1980 at a cost of A$7 million, was a 'gaol within a gaol' maximum-security section, designed to house Victoria's hardest and longest-serving prisoners. [10] It was awarded the 'Excellence in Concrete Award' by the Concrete Institute of Australia before being closed, eight years later, amidst controversy after the deaths of five prisoners in 1987. [11]
The design of Jika Jika was based on the idea of six separate units at the end of radiating spines. The unit comprised electronic doors, closed-circuit TV and remote locking, designed to keep staff costs to a minimum and security to a maximum. The furnishings were sparse and prisoners exercised in aviary-like escape-proof yards.
In 1983 four prisoners escaped from 'escape-proof' Jika Jika. [10] When two prison officers were disciplined in relation to the Jika Jika escape, a week-long strike occurred.
In 1987, inmates Robert Wright, Jimmy Loughnan, Arthur Gallagher, David McGauley and Ricky Morris from one side of the unit, and convicted Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue and three other inmates on the other side, sealed off their section doors with a tennis net. Mattresses and other bedding were then stacked against the doors and set on fire. Wright, Loughnan, Gallagher, McGauley [10] and Morris died in the blaze. Minogue and the three others were evacuated and survived.
In 1851, an ad hoc group of structures built by prison labour using local materials existed. None of these structures survived, other than the boundaries of the prison that were established. The second phase of construction, undertaken in the late 1850s and early 1860s, was the construction of Inspector General William Champ's model prison complex, based on British and American precedents.
In 1924, Pentridge replaced the Melbourne Gaol as the main remand and reception prison for the metropolitan area. In 1929, Melbourne Gaol was closed and its prisoners relocated to Pentridge. The Victorian Government confirmed its intention to close Pentridge and replace it with two new male prisons, each accommodating around 600 prisoners, in December 1993. In April 1995, the Office of Corrections ordered that the six main towers at Pentridge be closed, since most of the high-security prisoners from the gaol had been relocated to Barwon as part of the downgrading of Pentridge to a medium-security prison. The prison was finally closed in 1997 and sold by the State Government of Victoria.
Since the site was closed, almost all of the buildings identified as being of no significance in the 1996 Pentridge Conservation Management Plan (1996 CMP) prepared by Allom Lovell & Associates have been demolished with the approval of Heritage Victoria. The remaining heritage buildings and landmarks of significance, including A, B, D, E and H Divisions, B Annexe, Pentridge's iconic entrance, the administration building, the warden's quarters, the rock-breaking yards, the guard towers/posts (or observation posts) and the wall surrounding the site have been retained and will undergo restoration works to ensure their stability and preservation into the future. [12] The site as a whole is also classified as a place of state significance by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) (National Trust). [13] The National Trust has adopted the levels of significance identified in the 1996 CMP.
A number of the heritage buildings are protected in the Victorian Heritage Register and will be retained and integrated into a new community precinct a mix of housing types, retail, public open space and open piazza as set out in the Pentridge Coburg Design Guidelines and Masterplan of February 2014 (Pentridge Coburg Masterplan).
This document forms part of the Moreland Planning Scheme and was approved by The Hon. Matthew Guy, the Victorian Minister for Planning, between December 2010 and December 2014. [14] A similar Masterplan exists for the Pentridge Village site (Pentridge Village Masterplan). [15] The National Trust has expressed strong concerns about the nature of these masterplans, which involves building high-density high-rise between the historic divisions.
In 2016, Shayher Group revealed plans for a new "urban village" including up to 20 new buildings with community spaces and landscaped gardens as set out in the Pentridge Coburg Masterplan. Work has been undertaken to restore the roof of A Division, and seven guard towers. The H Division's rock-breaking yards were demolished. [16] [17]
The grave site of bushranger Ned Kelly formerly lay within the walls of Pentridge Prison. Ronald Ryan's remains have been returned to his family. Kelly was executed by hanging at the Melbourne Gaol in 1880 and his remains moved to Pentridge Prison in 1929, after his skeleton was disturbed in April 1929, by workmen constructing the present Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) building. Peter Norden, former prison chaplain at Pentridge Prison, has campaigned for the site's restoration.
As of 2011, most of the bodies have been exhumed by archaeologists and have either been re-interred in the original cemetery near D Division, are awaiting identification at the Melbourne morgue, or have been returned to their families. [18]
In 2011, Ned Kelly's remains were again exhumed, and returned to his surviving descendants for a family burial. [19] The identified remains of Kelly did not include most of his skull. [18] DNA testing established that another complete skull believed to be Kelly's was not his. [18] [20]
Name | Date of execution | Notes |
---|---|---|
David Bennett | 26 September 1932 | Convicted of the sexual assault of a four-year-old girl; the last man executed in Australia for a crime other than murder |
Arnold Karl Sodeman | 1 June 1936 | Strangled four girls over six years |
Edward Cornelius | 22 June 1936 | Convicted of the murder of Rev. H. Laceby Cecil in December 1935 at Collingwood |
Thomas William Johnson | 23 January 1939 | Convicted of two murders in October 1938 at a boarding-house in Dunolly |
George Green | 17 April 1939 | Convicted of the murders of a woman and her niece at their home in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy in November 1938 |
Alfred Bye | 22 December 1941 | Hanged sitting on a chair after nervous breakdown |
Edward Joseph Leonski | 9 November 1942 | American soldier executed on behalf of the United States Army after general court-martial. Convicted of three counts of premeditated murder. |
Jean Lee | 19 February 1951 | Last woman executed in Australia |
Norman Andrews | Accomplices of Jean Lee | |
Robert David Clayton | ||
Ronald Joseph Ryan | 3 February 1967 | Last man executed in Australia |
Ronald Ryan, the last man executed at Pentridge Prison, was also the last man to be executed in Australia.
He was hanged in D Division at 8:00 am on 3 February 1967 after being convicted of shooting dead prison officer George Hodson during an escape from the prison. Later that day, Ryan's body was buried in an unmarked grave within the D Division prison facility.
Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read was an Australian convicted criminal, gang member and author. Read wrote a series of semi-autobiographical fictional crime novels and children's books. The 2000 film Chopper is based on his life.
Coburg is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Darebin and Merri-bek local government areas. Coburg recorded a population of 26,574 at the 2021 census.
Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing warder George Hodson during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria, in 1965. Ryan's hanging was met with public protests by those opposed to capital punishment. Capital punishment was abolished in all states by 1985.
HM Prison Geelong was a maximum security Australia prison located on the corner of Myers Street and Swanston Street in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The prison was built in stages from 1849 to 1864. Its panopticon design is based on Pentonville Prison in England. The prison was officially closed in 1991 and prisoners were moved to the newly built HM Prison Barwon in Lara. The building now functions as a museum for the history of the prison.
HM Prison Beechworth, now known as Beechworth Gaol, was a medium security Australian prison located in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia.
HM Prison Fairlea was an Australian female prison located on Yarra Bend Road in the suburb of Fairfield, Victoria, Australia. The first all-female prison in Victoria, it was built on the site of the Yarra Bend Asylum, with remnants of the walls and gates being used in the layout of the prison. In 1982 a deliberately lit fire led to the deaths of three inmates. The rebuilt and expanded prison reopened in 1986. After closing in 1996 due to privatisation of sections of the prison system, Fairlea was demolished and the site converted to parkland.
The Old Melbourne Gaol is a former jail and current museum on Russell Street, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings, and opposite the Russell Street Police Headquarters. It was first constructed starting in 1839, and during its operation as a prison between 1845 and 1924, it held and executed some of Australia's most notorious criminals, including bushranger Ned Kelly and serial killer Frederick Bailey Deeming. In total, 133 people were executed by hanging. Though it was used briefly during World War II, it formally ceased operating as a prison in 1924; with parts of the jail being incorporated into the RMIT University, and the rest becoming a museum.
Clarence Lyell O'Shea, more commonly known as Clarrie O'Shea (1906–1988), was the Victorian State Secretary of the Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employees' Association who was jailed in 1969 by Sir John Kerr for contempt of the Industrial Court when he disobeyed a court order that his union pay $8,100 in fines, under the penal sections of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act.
J Ward originally the Ararat County Gaol, was an Australian prison, of the latter a psychiatric facility to house the criminally insane, located in Ararat, Victoria, Australia.
Father Charles Adolphus O'Hea OSA (1814–1903) was an Irish Australian Catholic Priest. He began his ministry in Ireland before travelling to Melbourne, Australia where he lived until his death. He is best known for establishing a number of churches north of Melbourne and for both baptizing and administering last rites to the bushranger Ned Kelly.
William Vasey Houghton MLC, better known as Vasey Houghton, was an Australian politician, grazier, and conservationist. He was one of the longest-serving members of the Victorian State Parliament, spending eighteen years as a Member of the Legislative Council, nine of them on the front bench. Houghton is remembered for his work cleaning up HM Prison Pentridge and the Yarra River.
Capital punishment in Australia has been abolished in all jurisdictions since 1985. Queensland abolished the death penalty in 1922. Tasmania did the same in 1968. The Commonwealth abolished the death penalty in 1973, with application also in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Victoria did so in 1975, South Australia in 1976, and Western Australia in 1984. New South Wales abolished the death penalty for murder in 1955, and for all crimes in 1985. In 2010, the Commonwealth Parliament passed legislation prohibiting the re-establishment of capital punishment by any state or territory. Australian law prohibits the extradition or deportation of a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they could be sentenced to death for any crime.
Palace Cinemas is an Australian cinema chain that specialises in arthouse and international films.
Peter Robert Gibb was an Australian criminal, known for his escape from the Melbourne Remand Centre in 1993.
Raymond Kevin Mooney is an Australian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Regarded as an important crime writer his plays have been produced in Australian theatres.
East Bourke Boroughs was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1904.
Adam Ford is a British-born archaeologist who has worked in United Kingdom, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Australia. He was host of the ABC television documentary Who's Been Sleeping in My House?.
Thomas William Johnson murdered two residents of a boarding house in the delicensed Windsor Castle Hotel in Dunolly, Victoria, in October 1938. He was an itinerant labourer with a record of violence and petty crime. Johnson confessed to the brutal killings, but at his trial he pleaded not guilty for reason of insanity. He was convicted and executed at Pentridge Prison in January 1939. Johnson was the fourth of eleven people to be hanged at Pentridge Prison after the closure of Melbourne Gaol in 1924.
Ernest Knox was an Australian man executed for the murder of Isaac Crawcour, whom he shot during a bungled burglary in Williamstown. He is known for possibly being the source of a skull previously thought to be that of bushranger Ned Kelly.