Old Castlemaine Gaol

On top of the highest hill in town sits the old Castlemaine Gaol. The view from here is nice, but I'm pretty sure that none of the involuntary residents were unimpressed.



Inside the building, it is much less inspiring. there are long hallways lined upstairs and down with small cells with tiny windows near the 10 foot high ceiling.

As suggested by the silhouette, there were women here as workers and in the 20th century, as inmates. The narrow stairs going down on the right lead to a dank cellar that was the kitchen. There are photos of this below.

All in all, a dismal place filled with sad stories about people whose lives were either destroyed or who had ruined the lives of others.

Even the view from the barred windows in the hallways didn't really show much of the outside world...just more barred windows.

The basement hallway leading to the kitchen area is narrow and, even now, a bit scary.

As is shown by the reproduction wood stove, this is the place where the food for the inmates was prepared. Not well-lit, not welcoming, and, I'm sure, miserably hot in the summer and overly warm in the winter as hundreds of meals are prepared.

As gruesomely suggested by the silhouette on the upper level, there were inmates here hung for their crimes. Fewer than a dozen, but the stories were disturbing.

Seeking a bit of fresh air, the exercise yard is only slightly better...high walls, watch towers and stone walls. The only relief is the green grass the budding trees.

there is no vantage point in the exercise yard from which you can see even a portion of the view we saw in the parking lot at the top of the post.

The place is better that the conditions we saw in the Tench in Hobart, but the end result is the same: tiny unheated rooms locking people away from the world.