Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison - Fremantle is a city in Western Australia just to the south of the state capital Perth and actually part of the larger Perth municipality. A landmark dominating parts of the city is the old Fremantle Prison, a jail complex mostly constructed during the 1850s . Even though the colony in Western Australia was founded as a ‘free settlement’ (unlike the penal colonies on the east coast and in Tasmania – see Port Arthur ), convicts were also transported to Fremantle, initially mainly to provide cheap labour. Later it became a regular government-run prison for local criminals. The prison had a long history of lamentable conditions for inmates and severe punishments such as flogging. From 1889 it also became an execution site , and 43 men and one woman were hanged here between 1889 and 1984, when Western Australia finally abolished the death penalty (as the last state of Australia to do so). The prison also saw a number of more or less spectacular escapes . Fremantle Prison generally tended to lag behind (or resist) prison reform movements and the appalling conditions for the prisoners led to several riots . The last and most violent of these took place as late as in 1988 when a large group of prisoners overpowered some guards and took them hostage while others laid fire to parts of the cell blocks causing considerable damage. It was even a media spectacle at the time. Not long after, in 1991 , the prison was closed and all remaining inmates transferred to a new maximum-security facility in Perth. In 1992 it was decided to preserve the prison site and most of the complex was converted into the visitor attraction it is today (while some parts were given over to other businesses, workshops and a hostel). In 2005 Fremantle Prison became an Australian National Heritage site, and in 2010 a World Heritage Site , as part of several other Australian Convict Sites (see e.g. Port Arthur ).