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| Petrie Terrace Gaol (S. Woolcock, 1988). |
Part one of this look at the Petrie Terrace Gaol will focus on the buildings themselves, the site of which later became the police barracks.
THE BUILDINGS
The prison was built of stone and brick and was initially surrounded by a tall wooden paling fence, which was soon replaced with a stronger stone wall. It cost about £26,000, much more than the measly £800 that had been allocated to prepare the Queen Street gaol just ten years beforehand. There were two main cellblocks, each one being threestories high and separated into two sections to make a total of four wings. Each wing contained 36 cells arranged back-to-back, and the cells opened onto external balconies with iron railings and external staircases. The separate cells were designed to keep the inmates apart at night and avoid the discipline and classification problems experienced at Queen Street. Each cell was 7’ 2” wide and 8’ 7” long, significantly smaller than the 10’ by 10’ recommended as being the smallest size admissible for the good health of prisoners back in England. The prisoners spent a lot of time in these cells, being allocated 13½ hours for sleeping in winter, and 13 hours during summer.
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| Petrie Terrace Gaol ground plan, 1868 |
One cellblock was set aside for male prisoners, while the male ‘lunatics’ and the female prisoners took up one half each of the other cellblock. Female lunatics were housed with the general female population. After the transfer of all female inmates to Toowoomba in 1870, and the opening of the Woogaroo Asylum, the wings were all used for male prisoners. Each wing had its own yard, and later there was also a hospital, workshop buildings (tailoring, bootmaking, tinsmithing, netmaking and leatherwork) and a debtor’s ward on the site.
The original plan was to build a larger prison with five wings at a cost of some £100,000. This never happened and plans to extend the gaol in the late 1860s came to nothing as a new prison had been built over on Saint Helena Island.
UNDERGROUND CELLS?
There has been some confusion regarding the existence of underground solitary confinement cells at the prison.John Stanley James, a journalist known as the 'Vagabond', wrote a detailed account of a visit to these cells in 1877. He claimed that there were two 'dark cells', located in a sunken building in one of the yards and accessed by walking down a dozen steps. The cells measured 9 feet by 5 feet and were empty except for a can of water and boards on stretchers that served as beds. The floors were cemented, and the walls were made of thick stone with a small ventilation shaft at the top, making them very hot in summer. They were completely dark and prisoners serving more than one day in these cells were let out just once a day for an hour’s exercise.
HOWEVER, an archaeological dig at the site in 2006 found no evidence of these cells, and there is no reference to them in other records. Did they exist? The best evidence suggests not, so perhaps James' report was the result of a 'vivid imagination'. I have written here before on the pervasiveness nature of stories about unseen underground tunnels and cells in local folklore.
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| Petrie Terrace Gaol, 1862 (John Oxley Library) |
THE CONDEMNED CELLS
We do know that there were condemned cells at the prison, because 26 men were hanged there. These cells were in the end yard next to the male hospital, and opened onto the yard normally used for confines and juveniles to exercise in. It is possible that in later years some ground-floor cells in one of the wings were also used to hold prisoners under sentence of death. The condemned cells were much like the others, except that they had outer iron doors. When needed, the gallows were also erected in this yard, but their height allowed curious people outside to see over the wall and watch a hanging. It has been said that when hangings were due to take place, the local children were sent to play at the bottom of their gardens, safely out of view of the events taking place in the gaol yard.
Petrie Terrace gaol closed in 1883 when the new prison opened over at Boggo Road.
Petrie Terrace gaol closed in 1883 when the new prison opened over at Boggo Road.
The next article on the Petrie Terrace will look at the prisoners there and their conditions.'The Prisoners of Toowong Cemetery: Life & death in the old Petrie Terrace gaol' is available from the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society's website.
