016 - Melbourne - Old Gaol

We don't really make grand plans when we visit somewhere.  We try to stay in a place near to where lots of tourists attractions are and then we wander.  You never know what you'll find when you wander, especially in Melbourne.

We had wandered for breakfast, and a burst water main meant we changed the direction of our travels.  As we walked home, we found the Old Melbourne Gaol which is found on a corner where lots of Melbourne history has happened, and it was relatively empty so we went in!  

It's a shared site now with the RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) so there are students and student facilities around everywhere, hence all the chairs.  This was originally the exercise yards.

I love that this is a Jail.  It's not meant to be pretty, or fun to visit and yet the way that they designed things back then (the 1800's) meant that those places still look amazing today.  It was almost cathedral like.

All the cells are filled with a different story of a different prisoner, including many death masks that they have displayed.

This was a death mask for John Weachurch, and his story is written above.  If you can manage it, I urge you to read the letter above that he wrote to his parents.  I found it really an interesting read - he seemed to blame the system for EVERYTHING that happened to him.... 'I had to beat up that person because that would prove that I didn't beat up the other person.....'

Frederick Deeming was a gentleman whose name I knew from reading many murder mystery stories (which I do like very much)

*spoiler - not really Ned's armour, that's kept elsewhere.

This is however, Ned's death mask.  He was hanged at the Gaol in 1880.  The one thing I can tell from this is that Ned must have been an enormous man.  Look at the size of his neck!  And goodlooking too, from what you can see.  Most photos show him with a full beard, but they must have shaven him before he was executed.  A good looking young man.  

I don't know how I feel about the whole "Ned Kelly was a hero" thing that has grown in Australia.  I'm really in the camp that Ned Kelly was a criminal, but perhaps forced into that life by a political system that didn't care for the Irish who were coming to Australia.  Like all of life, it isn't black or white but various shades of grey.

A small list of those unfortunates who were hanged at the Gaol.  The gallows are there onsite.  I didn't take a photo for some reason, but given how small the Gaol is inside, I can say with confidence that every prisoner would have heard them happening.  

My daughters are museum mad, and we spent a very long time in here.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, and would thoroughly recommend a visit.

Hope you're enjoying a quilty day!