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Fremantle Prison

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

The gatehouse of Fremantle prison by moonlight Fremantle Prison
Location	Fremantle, Western Australia
Status	Museum
Classification	Maximum
Capacity	1000
Opened	1856
Closed	1991
Managed by	Department of Housing and Works

Fremantle Prison is an Australian prison located in The Terrace, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia.

The prison is no longer functional and operates as a heritage museum.

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History

The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850's, using limestone quarried on-site. Work started in 1850 and was completed by 1857. When the convicts had completed the prison wings, walls and associated buildings, they were then used for other chain gang work in the surroundling area. For example, convict labour built the Fremantle Asylum, which is now the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Whipping post

During World War I and World War II, the prison was taken over by the Australian Army and used as a military prison from September 1939 until June 1946. Rottnest Island was also used to hold prisoners and POW's during war time.

The Fremantle gallows room was the only legal place of execution in Western Australia between 1888 and 1984, with 43 men and 1 woman being hanged between these years. The last person to be hanged was a serial killer, a Mr Eric Edgar Cooke, who was hanged to death in 1964. Punishments could also involve solitary confinement and lashings in the excercise yard.

Fremantle prison was decommisioned on October 31 1991 and in the same year Casuarina Prison was commissioned. It is about 30km south of Perth and replaced the 130-year-old Fremantle Prison as the State's main maximum-security prison. Bandyup Women's Prison had already been opened in 1970 to house the female prisoners resident in Fremantle, it is located 17km North-East of Perth.

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Famous 'Guests'

A cell in Fremantle prison

One of Fremantle prisons' most notorious inmates was a bushranger known as Moondyne Joe, real name, Joseph Bolitho Johns, who escaped many times from incarceration. He is nowadays known as the greatest escape artist of Australia's convict era. On one occasion he escaped from Fremantle prison by building stones against the wall and then digging through the wall. Whilst celebrating his second year of freedom he was recaptured and brought back to the prison. He became a free man in 1873 and later died in the Fremantle lunatic asylum on 13 August 1900. His name has been used since as the name of a bar/cafe in Fremantle [1] (http://www.moondynejoes.com.au/).

Other well known characters that stayed in the prison were the 'Fenians', 62 of them arrived at Fremantle in 1867. Many were pardoned over the years, but in 1876, six escaped on the Catalpa whaleboat to New York [2] (http://www.fremantleprison.com.au/history/history32.cfm). The Wolfe Tones have recorded a song about the incident called "The Fenians' Escape".

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The Present

Prison art

In 1992 the prison opened it's doors to public tours, additionally the prisoner art gallery showcases and offers for sale the artworks of current and ex-prisoners of Western Australian.

On June 7 2005, a network of tunnels under the prison was opened to the public, where visitors can paddle through the tunnels by boat. The tunnels are 20 metres underground and were used to transport water around Fremantle. The accessible tunnels are more than one kilometre in length and travel under the jail and surrounding area.

There is a chapel in the prison that is nowadays used for wedding ceremonies. It is notable that behind the altar there is a wooden painted representation of the Ten Commandments that has the words to the sixth commandment subtly altered.