Darlinghurst Gaol - Taylor Square - Darlinghurst
Ten Things You May Not Have Known About Darlinghurst Goal.
1. In The Early 1820's, The NSW Colonial Administration Decided To Invest In A New Prison Facility. A Site was Identified At Darlinghurst Hill & The Architect Francis Greenway Was Asked To Design It. Darlinghurst Goal Was To Overlook Sydney As A Constant Reminder That Sydney Town Was A Convict Settlement.
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2. In 1822, Construction Of The Walls Began Using Convict Labour. After An Early Flurry, Funds Eventually Ran Out And Work On The Site Stopped. Sydney's Existing Jail At The Rocks Eventually Suffered From Intense Overcrowding & Public Pressure Led The Darlinghurst Goal Project To Restart In 1835.
The Later Designs Of The Prison By Architect Mortimer Lewis, Were Radically Changed by George Barney, Who Then Took Over The Project. After 1841 Even George Barneys Designs Were Changed By The Administration To Fit In More Prisoners In The Complex.
In The Original Plans, Each Cell Was To Accomodate 1 Prisoner, But That Was Changed To Each Cell Holding 3 Prisoners. Outside The Walls, Near The Front Entrance, Effluent & Sewage Collected In A Big Pond, With The Stench Rising Up To Greet Anyone Who Came Past It.
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3. The First Prisoners Were Housed In 1841. However, The Prison Itself was Not Completed Until 1881.
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4. Over The Decades, The Darlinghurst Goal Hosted Some Significant Prisoners, Including -
Poet Henry Lawson. Lawson, Who Did Time For Drunkeness & Non Payment Of Alimony, Recorded His Experience In His 1908 Poem, One Hundred & Three - His Prison Number
- Captain Moonlight
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5. Makeshift Public Gallows Were Locates Outside The Main Gate In Forbes Street. A Permanent Gallows Was Located Inside The Main Wall Near The Intersection If Darlinghurst Road & Burton Street. Among The 79 People Executed Was Notorious Bushranger Captain Moonlight In 1880.
Also Executed - John Knatchbull - Hanged in 1844
- jimmy Governor - Hanged in 1901
- The Last Woman Hanged In NSW Was Louisa Collins in January 1889
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6. Conditions In The Goal Deteriorated & It Was Plagued With Drainage, Security & Disease Problems. The Long Bay Goal Superceded Darlinghurst When It Opened In 1914 With Such Mod Cons As Cell Lighting & A Prison Library.
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7. The Jail Was Used As An Internment Camp During World War One. In 1921 The Buildings Were Converted Into The East Sydney Technical College.
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8. In 1921, The National Art School Also Took Up Residence In The Old Prison Buildings. Students Who Passed Through The NAS Include -
Margaret Olley, Ken Done, Max Dupain, Reg Mombasaa & The Sculptor Raynor Hoff, James Gleeson, John Coburn, Fiona Hall, Wendy Sharp, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen,
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9. Also Within The Complex Is The Cell Block Theatre Which Was Announced In 1955 By Hollywood Legend Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn Made a Speech Noting How Appropriate It Was That A Member Of The Second Oldest Profession In The Business, Should Open A Building Which Had Housed Women From the Oldest Profession.
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10. Darlinghurst Goal Is The Oldest Surviving Large Jail Complex In Australia.
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Prisoners Were Marched In Chains From The Decaying Prison In Old George Street North To The Big New Goal In Darlinghurst In 1841.
There were 159 fillings in the cavalcade, 119 men and 40 women.
Three years later a crowd of 10,000 were outside the Gaols Great Stone Wall To Watch Murderer John Knatchbull hang on the public gallows. Until 1852 All Hangings Were public. The last hanging out the jail was in 1907, of the 67th Person to die on the gallows there.
The Goal Had Been Planned In 1835, was a long time building. 13 years earlier, convicts had begun to dig stone for its wall On Goat Island & in the Woolloomooloo Quarries. Some of the marks they carved in the blocks, So That A Tally could be kept Of Their Quota in the cut stone, Is Still Legible.
The Gaol Was Planned by Mortimer Lewis, After The Original Designs From Francis Greenway Many Years before. On An American Model, As A Series Of Curved buildings Grouped Around A Chapel. In 1840, A Time Of Depression, Free Labour Was Used On the Chief Gaoler's House And Two Cell Wings Under A Scheme To Ease
"The Great Destitution Among The Working Classes."
Strenuous But Not Always Successful Efforts Were Made To Extract Useful Work From The Prisoners, Who Worked At trades Seven hours A Day. Discipline Was Severe.
One Of The Few Amenities Was the Fact That No Cell Had A Ceiling Less Than 10 Feet High.
In World War 1, German Prisoners Of War Were Housed in the Gaol, & Long Bay Gaol Took Over The Criminals. In 1921 The Massive Buildings Threw off their Ugly Past - Darlinghurst Gaol Opened Its Gates To Hopeful youth & Became East Sydney Technical College.
2022 - The Latest News About The Darlinghurst Site
