An allotment of scrubland to the north-east of Melbourne was selected as
Port Phillips first permanent gaol. On 1 January 1838, George Wintle was appointed to be gaoler at the prison at £100 a year; with the site becoming colloquially known as ''Wintle's Hotel''. Construction of the gaol started in 1839–1840 on Collins Street West, but it was considered too small at the time. A second gaol was then built between 1841 and 1844 at the corner of Russell and La Trobe Streets, adjoining the then
Supreme Court. The first cell block was opened for prisoners in 1845, but the facilities were considered inadequate; escapes occurring frequently. The gaol was already crowded by 1850. With the
discovery of gold in 1851 (when the Port Phillip District became the new Colony of Victoria), and the resulting influx of population, law and order became more difficult to maintain. Subsequently, a new wing, with its own perimeter wall, was constructed between 1852 and 1854; the building using bluestone instead of sandstone. The design was based on that of British prison engineer
Joshua Jebb, and especially the designs for the Pentonville Model Prison in
London (which suited the current prison reform theories at the time). The new wing was extended in between 1857 and 1859, with the boundary wall also being extended during this time. In 1860, a new north wing was built; which included entrance buildings, a central hall and chapel. Between 1862 and 1864, a cell block was built for female prisoners on the western side – it was basically a replica of the present east block (until this time, female convicts were not kept apart from the male prisoners). In 1864, the perimeter wall, and the gaol overall, was completed;
Operation hood Much of daily life inside the gaol could be gleaned from sources such as diaries written by John Castieau, governor of the gaol between 1869 and 1884. It also housed up to twenty children at a time – including those imprisoned for petty theft or vagrancy, or simply those staying with a convicted parent. Babies under twelve months old were allowed to be with their mothers. Prisoners convicted of serious crimes, such as murder, arson, burglary, rape and shooting, would begin their time on the ground floor with a time of
solitary confinement. They were also forbidden from communicating with other prisoners, which was strictly enforced by the usage of a silence mask, or
calico hood, when outside their cells. Prisoners might only have been allowed to finally socialise with other prisoners towards the end of their sentences. The most infamous was that of bushranger
Ned Kelly at the age of 25, on 11 November 1880. After a two-day trial, Kelly was convicted of killing a police officer. As stated by law at the time, executed prisoners were buried in unmarked graves in the gaol burial yard. Before burial, a death mask was produced from the executed prisoners head as part of the
phrenological study of hanged felons. The gallows occupied several different sites within the gaol. A free-standing scaffold was used for early executions, initially outside the main gate and later in one of the yards; for a triple hanging in 1864 it was erected just inside the main gate complex. Diarist Charles Evans witnessed the aftermath of the 1853 triple hanging of bushrangers William Atkins, George Wilson and George Melville: After 1864 a fixed gallows was installed below the octagon across the main axis of the prison block, against the wall dividing the male block from the female block. It comprised a single-leaf trap cut into the metal walkway, with iron sockets in either wall above, into which the beam was placed for each hanging (a common design, used in other Victorian gaols at Ararat, Geelong, Beechworth, Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Melbourne and Pentridge; and interstate at Adelaide and Long Bay, New South Wales). It was later moved a few metres to a side gallery below the octagon, where it remains today. The first hanging of a woman in Victoria, Elizabeth Scott, was performed in the prison on 11 November 1863 – along with her co-accused, Julian Cross and David Gedge. The last person to be executed was Angus Murray in 1924, the same year the gaol was closed.
Ned Kelly Edward "Ned" Kelly, born sometime between June 1854 and June 1855, was an Irish-Australian
bushranger. He was seen by some as merely a cold-blooded killer, while to others he was a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities. As a youth he clashed with the Victoria Police, and after an incident at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him in the bush. He killed three policemen, and subsequently the colony proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police took place at
Glenrowan on 28 June 1880. Kelly, dressed in a home-made plate metal armour and helmet, was captured and sent to gaol. He was hanged for murder at the Old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880. His notoriety affirmed him as a polarising iconic figure in Australian history, folk lore, literature, art and film.
Colin Campbell Ross Colin Campbell Ross, an Australian wine-bar owner, was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke in December 1921. The case, dubbed the
Gun Alley Murder, was heavily influenced by public hysteria at the time, which ultimately served to condemn him. Despite his pleas of innocence (including an attempt whereby a letter was thrown over the gaol walls), he was executed by hanging in the gaol in April 1922 (only 115 days after the body was found). A new four-strand rope was used for the first time at the execution, and proved to be a failure; Ross slowly strangled for between 8 and 20 minutes before his death. A prison report later ruled that such a rope must never be used again. He was posthumously pardoned on 27 May 2008.
Frederick Bailey Deeming Frederick Bailey Deeming was born on 30 July 1853. At 16 years of age he ran away to sea, and thereafter, he began a long career of crime, largely thieving and obtaining money under false pretences. He was responsible for the murder of his first wife Marie, and his four children, at Rainhill, England, on or about 26 July 1891, and a second wife, Emily, at Windsor, Melbourne, on 24 December 1891. Less than three months elapsed between the discovery of Emily Mather's body in
Windsor, Melbourne, in March 1892, and Deeming's execution at the Old Melbourne Gaol for her murder in May 1892; a remarkably short time by comparison to modern western legal standards. After his execution, it was reported that over 12,000 people cheered on the streets outside, and there was public speculation that Deeming was in fact
Jack the Ripper. The
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner public marker exists at the place of execution. The website contains historical research and information on the artists commissioned for the marker, Artist Brook Andrew, along with Trent Walter. "Two Tasmanian Aboriginal men, clad in white pyjamas, went to their deaths on a makeshift gallows in Melbourne in 1842. The contemporaneous executions were apparently quite a spectacle: one man, Maulboyheenner, twisting on the rope, strangled slowly in front of a crowd of 5000. They had been convicted of killing two whalers in Western Port. Both the Tasmanians and the whalers – one was called the Yankee – were a long way from home."
Closure and reopening In 1870, a review of the penal system was conducted, with the recommendation being made to close the gaol and relocate prisoners to more suitable locations. The gaol gradually slowed its operations, and demolished portions of the original site between 1880 and 1924. In 1924, the gaol was finally closed. and a further four coffins were believed to have been moved to
Pentridge in 1937. As the gaol was progressively decommissioned, the building's fabric, including bluestone grave markers of executed prisoners, was incorporated into a sea wall at Brighton in Victoria in the 1930s. The grave marker for Martha Needle, executed in 1894, was rediscovered after being buried by metres of sand. During
World War II, the gaol was used as a military prison for soldiers found to be
absent without leave. In May 1974, the sections used by the school were remodelled by architects Eggleston, McDonald and Secomb, to act as the schools food and fashion departments. The Emily McPherson College was merged into
RMIT University in 1979, bringing the gaol entrance gates, and other facilities alongside it. In 1990, RMIT performed work to restore the enclosed balcony to its former 1927 design. In 1994, RMIT performed further work to landscape the inner courtyard, and in 1995, removed the temporary war-time pavilion classrooms. , the sections that RMIT owns are collectively known as the "RMIT Building 11. Architect: Colonial Government Architect", and include the entrance block and chapel; with the bath house and chapel serving as art studios. ==Museum==