Old Melbourne Gaol

In August 2025 my partner and I visited Melbourne, and Old Melbourne Gaol was on my bucket list!

Back then, I knew I wanted to make art about places built to contain, conceal, or dispose of what a given era wanted out of sight ... but I had no idea how I was going to do this.

Sometimes it takes building an exhibition to really hone in on what you want to communicate - and that's what happened with my Parkside Lunatic Asylum work.

I began to combine my tapestries with cyanotypes, as well as x-ray weaving - combining all three mediums into works that fit in to my theme.

Not all inspiration pics are suitable for tapestry!

According to the Old Melbourne Gaol website, when it was "built in the mid-1800s, it dominated the Melbourne skyline as a symbol of authority. Inside the Gaol, dangerous criminals were held alongside petty offenders, the homeless and the mentally ill.

Between 1842 and its closure in 1929 the gaol was the scene of 133 hangings including Australia’s most infamous citizen, the bushranger Ned Kelly. Today you can visit the Old Melbourne Gaol to find out what life was like for the men and women who lived and died here all those years ago."