Old Melbourne Gaol

My partner and I were in Melbourne in August 2025, and Old Melbourne Gaol had been on the list for a while. Not for any particular reason I could have explained at the time - just a pull towards places like this. Sites built to hold what an era wanted out of sight. I already knew that was the thread running through my work. I did not yet know what to do with it.

Some photos never make it further than a folder on my laptop. This trip was mostly that. Which is fine. Not every site needs to become a piece to be worth the visit.

The gaol went up in the mid-1800s and was, by design, unmissable - a structure meant to be seen and understood as authority, not hidden away at the edge of town. Everyone ended up inside it together: serious offenders, petty ones, people who were simply homeless, people who were mentally unwell. No real sorting beyond guilty of existing somewhere the city didn't want to look. Between its opening in 1842 and its closure in 1929, it recorded 133 hangings, including Ned Kelly's - the one name most people already associate with the building before they know anything else about it.

I don't know yet if anything from this visit turns into a piece. That's not really the point of keeping the record.

Sources: Old Melbourne Gaol

Photos are my own