The Audioprof goes to prison

A bout six weeks ago my family and I were escorted to prison. It’s not nearly as deviant or judgmental as it sounds…we went to the Fremantle Prison, which is located only about a couple miles from where we live. And before you relatives start worrying about our personal safety, living so close to a maximum security correctional facility, fear not…because the Fremantle Prison is no longer operational. That is, as a place of incarceration. Instead, it is a major historical landmark and tourist attraction.  But, one of the interesting things is that until 1991 (!) the Fremantle prison was the place where all the state prisoners from Western Australia were held. Pretty phenomenal, considering that the place was built in 1850 (!).

 

Most of the facts that I’m relating to you I first heard from our fantastic tour guide. Here’s a picture of him leading my son and daughter off to the hoosegow. But, you can read more history by clicking here…a webpage that I now know that our tour guide must have been instructed to memorize as part of his job.

Apparently we live in an area that used to be known as the Swan River Colony. It was the first colony in the entire country that wasn’t settled by ships of English convicts being sent here. Or I should say, it wasn’t *originally* settled that way. The Swan River Colony originated in 1928 when it was founded by Admiral (then Capt.) Sir James Stirling…who now has a major highway named after him that runs along the edge of town.  But, almost as quickly as “free” settlers began arriving they hopped on boats back to England due to the  flies and the heat and the general lack of infrastructure sent many of them packing back to the mother country. (In an interesting aside, Wikipedia claims that this history was a reaons Karl Marx mentions the Swan River Colony as an example of failed capitalism in Das Kapital…I have to take their word for it as re-reading that won’t make it near the top of my list for a while.)

Then, in 1849…just after the Queen had decided to STOP sending convicts to the eastern side of the country–they sent around 160,000 by that time, the governor of Western Australia sent a letter to the monarch saying, essentially, “please send convicts who are close to parole to us here in the Swan River Colony…and it would be especially good if they had skills like carpentry and brick laying…”

So, the Queen decides yes and sends off a proclamation in one ship, heading toward what is now Fremantle. Then, a ship filled with prisoners is loaded up and sent shortly afterwards. Probably, a little too shortly afterwards, because the convict ship passed the ship sending word that they were on their way. So a ship of 170 convicts and guards arrived in 1850 long before the piece of paper sending their RSVP.  They were led by an engineer named Henderson, who also has a street named after him in town.  The police station is on it.

They got that straightened out, by renting a warehouse “downtown area” what is now the Esplanade Hotel…although our guide said that at the time it was not nearly that posh. And work started shortly thereafter on the building of the prison. Now, apparently the person in charge of building the prison had two places he could choose from to put it. One was on the cliff overlooking the Swan River at what is now King’s Park. I am SO glad that he instead decided to put it in the current location…otherwise I would not have had such a great time at King’s Park.

So, here are some pictures from the prison. We begin with the hallway which was merely whitewashed and not insulated. It gets down to below freezing and up around 40-Celsius in some summers (that’s over 110F!). And the doors to the cells are much shorter than today’s because the people were shorter. No, I didn’t have to duck to get in…I know you’re wondering.

Here we see our tour guide holding the wooden pot that the convict would have used to pee and poop in. This was fascinating to many on the tour…particularly the kids! For the modern-day use of the prison there were two convicts in each cell, each with their own bucket. Yuck.

Here’s a couple of views of the wall–from inside and out. There was an interesting story that the guide told: In the museum there were samples of plastic tennis rackets that the convicts were allowed to use for awhile as part of exercise and relaxation in the yard. But, then apparently, the crafty convicts figured out that they could get their friends on the OUTSIDE to toss tennis balls over the wall INTO the prison. But they weren’t just new balls with lots of bounce. Instead, they were balls that had been cut open and filled with contraband: cigarettes to drugs. After that was found out….no more tennis.

Here’s a shot of the nicest place in the whole prison–the church. Church was well-attended, of course, because it was one of the ways that convicts would get released from their cells. Some of the convicts were those who had been transferred to solitary confinement to for their own safety. Here’s a shot of the place where such prisoners were brought in the church. The procedure would be that the “normal” prisoners were brought into the church and told that they could only face forward. Then the protective custody prisoners were brought in and placed into the room behind the curtain. When the service began, the curtain was pulled back. Oh, and BTW, the prison church…and other places…can be rented for weddings or other special events.

There was an interesting series of cells in the museum looking at what they looked like through the history of the place. We start with merely a hammock…

 

Then move to a cot…

And finally into two bunks…this from the 1980s. Note in this picture the tan porta-toilet in the left side of the screen. Apparently the convicts originally thought this was a great improvement from the wooden piss-pots. But, just like the few bad characters who ruined the tennis for the other guys, apparently some of the convicts thought that the chemicals in the bottom of the porta-toilet to break down the waste was something that would be good to drink to get a high. Ugh! And, because they had convicts with blue mouths and bad trips, back they went to the wooden pots.

Now, here’s a look at a couple a cells that have been kept for posterity because of the artwork that they contain. Both these convicts had agreed to teach other convicts art classes in exchange for the privilege to have their own art supplies in their rooms and the permission to create paintings on the walls.

 

This was a prison that exercised capital punishment through hanging, the only place to do so in the state between 1888 and 1984. Forty three men and one woman were hanged there between that time.
In 1988 the prisoners rioted for 2 days in January (in the heat! Remember, we’re opposite down here), taking guards prisoner and destroying part of one of the main buildings with fire and water. They eventually surrendered…and the prison was closed in 1991, with the prisoners being transferred to Casuarina Prison.

Tagged as: Adventure, Australia