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An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the detail.
A bluestone cell block, the gallows and the lives recorded in its cells offer several ways into the story of the Old Melbourne Gaol.
On this page
A gold-rush prison
The gaol grew with Melbourne. A second gaol was built at Russell and La Trobe Streets in 1841–44, and a bluestone wing followed in 1852–54, at the height of the gold rush.
Its design drew on London’s Pentonville prison, with cells opening onto galleries under a long roof.
The people held here
Between 1842 and 1924, 133 people were hanged at the gaol, among them Ned Kelly on 11 November 1880. Death masks of executed prisoners are among the displays.
The cells also tell the stories of women and children held at the gaol, in an exhibition included with general admission.
A protected place
The gaol closed in 1924, and the National Trust reopened it as a museum in 1972. It has been on the Victorian Heritage Register since 1982.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
