The Richmond Gaol is a convict era building and tourist attraction in Richmond, Tasmania, and is the oldest intact gaol in Australia. Building of the gaol commenced in 1825, and predates the establishment of the penal colony at Port Arthur in 1833.[1] One of the tasks completed by the convicts who were held at Richmond Gaol was the construction of Richmond Bridge.
Most of the gaol buildings have not been changed since convict times. They include an example of a femalesolitary confinement cell, measuring 2 metres (6.6ft)s by 1 metre (3.3ft)
The buildings include a chain gang sleeping rooms, a flogging yard, a cookhouse and holding rooms. The buildings also feature historical relics and documents.
Beginnings
Settlers of Hobart Town were moving away in order to search for more farming land. The area of Sorell was quite established and it was being extended into the area soon to be known as Richmond. In the meantime, convicts were used as virtual slave labour to create all kinds of infrastructure like roads, bridges and public buildings.
Finally the township of Richmond was proclaimed in 1824.
A court house to service the police district in the area was built in 1825 and this was the start of the gaol building.
Expanding the gaol
By the 1830s the gaol was horribly overcrowded because of it being so small - 19 square metres - and prisoners were forced to sleep in the passageways.
The two storey building began construction in 1832 and completed in 1833. The upper level served as the Gaoler's Residence with the downstairs section being storage.
In 1835, the Eastern and Western wings were added and it's the Western Wing which serves as the entrance to the building to this very day. Once these were completed it created a better segregation between male and female prisoners. The female wing contained a new cookhouse and bake oven.
In an attempt to negate the escapes and escape attempts from the gaol, it was surrounded with a stone wall. This was done in 1840.
Decline, closure and rescue
By the mid-1850s, the place was only being used as a Watch House due to the cessation of convict transportation. In 1861, it was controlled by the municipal police and when they were removed to become centralised in Hobart, the gaol simply became a group of holding cells.
The gaol had solitary cells (or solitary confinement). The idea was you could be place in pitch darkness and complete silence for a period of 24 hours to thirty days. The time period depended upon what you were charged with.
Flagellation Yard
Hangings never took place at Richmond Gaol but flagellations (whippings) did. Convicts would be strapped to a wood frame, and the lashes meted out accordingly. In some colonies, it seems a kidney belt would be used to minimise harm to the kidneys but from the illustrations of flagellations taking place in the yard, this seemed to be absent.
Even though some people in Hobart Town would be sentenced to 500 lashes, the number was a little more sympathetic in Richmond. It would start at 25, with the number occasionally hitting 75 or 100. As painful as it sounds, salt would be rubbed into the flesh wounds created by the cat-o-nine tails, but this was actually done to minimise infection.
The lashings at Richmond Gaol (or any other gaol which undertook whippings - i.e.: Adelaide Gaol, Melbourne Gaol) would have a medical officer standing by to check whether the persons' life would be in danger. Should the person be deemed unfit to continue, they would be taken down. However, once they were fit enough again, they would be strapped back up to have the remainder of their sentence handed out.
Ghosts
Like most old sites like this, it has its fair share of ghost stories. The third cell in the Men's Block is apparently quite well known for the terrible effect it can have on people in there. People claim to hear moaning and deep sighs and some people claim they get a cold shiver as they approach.[2]
Flagellation, flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on an unwilling subject as a punishment; however, it can also be submitted to willingly and even done by oneself in sadomasochistic or religious contexts.
Port Arthur is a town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. It is located approximately 97 kilometres (60 mi) southeast of the state capital, Hobart.
Matthew Brady was an English-born convict who became a bushranger in Van Diemen's Land. He was sometimes known as "Gentleman Brady" due to his good treatment and fine manners when robbing his victims.
Richmond is a town in Tasmania about 25 km north-east of Hobart, in the Coal River region, between the Midland Highway and Tasman Highway. At the 2006 census, Richmond had a population of 880.
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.
Risdon Prison Complex is an Australian medium to maximum security prison for males located in Risdon Vale near Hobart, Tasmania. The facility is operated by the Tasmanian Prison Service, an agency of the Department of Justice of the Government of Tasmania. The facility accepts criminals convicted under Tasmanian and/or Commonwealth legislation.
H.M. Gaol Hobart or Campbell Street Gaol, a former Australian maximum security prison for males and females, was located in Hobart, Tasmania. Built by convict labour, the gaol operated between 1821 until the early 1960s. In 1961, male inmates were transferred to the H.M. Risdon Prison and in 1963, female inmates were transferred to the Risdon Women's Prison.
The Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, a former British colonial penal settlement, established on Sarah Island, Macquarie Harbour, in the former colony of Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, operated between 1822 and 1833. The settlement housed male convicts, with a small number of women housed on a nearby island. During its 11 years of operation, the penal colony achieved a reputation as one of the harshest penal settlements in the Australian colonies. The former penal station is located on the eight-hectare (twenty-acre) Sarah Island that now operates as a historic site under the direction of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.
Launceston Reception Centre, formerly the Launceston Remand Centre, an Australian maximum security prison for male and female inmates held on remand, is located in Launceston, Tasmania. The facility is operated by the Tasmanian Prison Service, an agency of the Department of Justice of the Government of Tasmania. The facility accepts felons charged under Tasmanian and/or Commonwealth legislation pending legal proceedings; and also detains convicted felons, pending their classification and placement at other correctional facilities in Tasmania.
Thomas Jeffrey was a convict bushranger, murderer, and cannibal in the mid-1820s in Van Diemen's Land. In contemporary newspaper reports of his crimes, he was frequently described as a 'monster'. Jeffrey and three other convicts absconded from custody in Launceston in December 1825 and were subsequently responsible for five murders characterised by extreme violence, including the killing of a five-month-old infant. Another victim was a member of the gang, killed while he slept and his flesh consumed by his companions. Jeffrey was captured in January 1826; he was tried in Hobart and convicted of various of his crimes. Jeffrey was executed by hanging at Hobart in May 1826.
Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia.
The Richmond Bridge is a heritage-listed arch bridge located on the B31 in Richmond, 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) north of Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. It is the oldest stone span bridge in Australia. In 2005, the bridge was recognised as an outstanding historic place and added to the Australian National Heritage List.
The modern history of the Australian city of Hobart in Tasmania dates to its foundation as a British colony in 1804. Prior to British settlement, the area had been occupied definitively for at least 8,000 years, and possibly for as long as 35,000 years, by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe, a sub-group of the Nuenonne, or South-East tribe. The descendants of theses indigenous Tasmanians now refer to themselves as 'Palawa'. Little is known about the region from prehistoric times. As with many other Australia cities, urbanisation has destroyed much of the archaeological evidence of indigenous occupation, although aboriginal middens are often still present in coastal areas.
The Auburn system is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. The silent system evolved during the 1820s at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, as an alternative to and modification of the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement, which it gradually replaced in the United States. Whigs favored this system because it promised to rehabilitate criminals by teaching them personal discipline and respect for work, property, and other people.
John Lee Archer was the Civil Engineer and Colonial Architect in Van Diemen's Land, serving from 1827 to 1838. During his tenure, Archer was responsible for all Tasmanian government buildings including those for penal and military purposes.
The separate system is a form of prison management based on the principle of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement. When first introduced in the early 19th century, the objective of such a prison or "penitentiary" was that of penance by the prisoners through silent reflection upon their crimes and behavior, as much as that of prison security. More commonly however, the term "separate system" is used to refer to a specific type of prison architecture built to support such a system.
The Richmond General Penitentiary was a prison established in 1820 in Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland as an alternative to transportation. It was part of an experiment into a penitentiary system which also involved Millbank Penitentiary, London. Richmond and Millbank penitentiaries were the first prisons in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to specialise in reform rather than punishment. The building was designed by the architect Francis Johnston and decorated by George Stapleton. The building ceased to be a penitentiary in 1831, and later became part of the Richmond Asylum.
The Ross Female Factory, a former Australian workhouse for female convicts in the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land, is located in the village of Ross, in the midlands region of Tasmania. The site was operational between 1848 and 1854.
Solomon Blay (or Bleay) (20 January 1816 – 18 August 1897) was an English convict transported to the Australian penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania). Once his sentence was served, he gained notoriety as a hangman in Hobart, and is believed to have hanged over 200 people in the course of a long career spanning from 1837 to 1887. This made him the longest serving hangman in the British Empire.
The Cooking Pot Uprising or Cooking Pot Riot was an uprising of convicts led by William Westwood in the penal colony of Norfolk Island, Australia. It occurred on 1 July 1846 in response to the confiscation of convicts' cooking vessels under the orders of the Commandant of the penal settlement, Major Joseph Childs.
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