Wednesday August 24th 2011 Fannie Bay Gaol

Jennifer and Heath joined us for a visit to Fannie Bay Gaol. If you ever want to feel depressed, just visit this place. It was only closed down as a gaol in 1979 and looking around at the condition of the buildings, it must have been almost derelict then.

Cyclone cages housed several prisoners in the one cage. Apparently, this is what the prisoners wanted and many of them would have been indigenous so were used to being together and sharing. It was also a recommendation by an inquiry into deaths in custody that indigenous prisoners be housed this way.

Up until the mid 1950s, male and female prisoners were not separated in different areas. The female section had plants that were tended by the prisoners. There was also a children’s section and an area for infectious diseases e.g. leprosy.

A solid brick building that was the infirmary was altered to house a gallows. Several prisoners were hanged and the last two in the 1950s. This area is especially eerie. It’s not hard to imagine what this place would have been like. We tend to do our own explorations when we visit some places so the four of us separated and as there weren’t a lot of sightseers so often you would find yourself alone in an area.

Looking through the cells that held up to 3 prisoners at a time was challenging. The extremely narrow cell doors made entry difficult and also getting out, which is probably the reason for the narrowness of the opening.  It would be difficult for more than one person to exit the cell or to actually rush a guard.

To say the cells were spartan would be an exaggeration. They did have a flushing toilet in each one with a low wall for some form of privacy.

ablutions block

The muster point had numbered spaces on the lawn for inmates to stand and be counted. Most of the numbers were still visible even though the grass was doing its best to cover them.

The living conditions of the guards/warders and their families weren’t much better than the prisoners when it was first opened.

There was an art exhibition of current prisoners’ paintings, pottery, sculptures and installations. Most of them were very good and Jennifer and Heath want to buy one. The one that Robert really liked was quite large (2m x 1.5m) and it was only $10,000! It was excellent and painted by an Indigenous artist. The exhibition was aptly named ‘Behind the Wire’.

  

We were all glad to get out of this place when we’d seen enough – not so the prisoners from a few decades ago.

As we’ve travel, we often listen to local ABC radio or Radio National and there have been a few programs that have highlighted the imbalance of indigenous prisoners to non-indigenous prisoners. The percentage of indigenous prisoners is considerably higher.