"Statistics may be defined as "a body of methods for making wise decisions in the face of uncertainty."
(Wilson Allen Wallis)
Public Works recently stated that 3,000 people visited Boggo Road Gaol in the four months during December 2012-April 2013. We don’t know how these figures were checked or obtained and so we can’t comment on their accuracy, but it is interesting to compare them to official visitor figures from Boggo Road during 2004-05, when the place was under not-for-profit management.
Visitor numbers, Boggo Road Gaol, 2004-05 and 2012-13
AUG 2004- DEC 2005 | DEC 2012- APR 2013 | |
General admission | 1484 | - |
Guided Day Tours | 9415 | - |
Guided Night Tours | 1,648 | - |
Ghost Tours | - | - |
Functions | 3, 706 | - |
Other events | 374 | - |
Totals | 16,627 | 3,000 |
Inc. Ghost Tour figures* | 18,710 | - |
Average/month | 1,100 | 750 |
*‘Ghost Tours’ figures were not disclosed, so final totals include a
conservative guess of 20 people per week from these events.
conservative guess of 20 people per week from these events.
Obviously the 2004-05 figures are higher, but they were achieved at a time when the capacity of the BRGHS to offer visitor services was much more limited than it is now. Our membership base back then was less than 10% of our current size, and although we had an average of six staff at the museum per day, we only had had two or three tour guides available. All staff were volunteers with other lives to lead, so we did hold back somewhat when it came to marketing the tours.
Of course, things have changed now and a tour guide recruitment drive late last year resulted in nearly 30 people putting their hands up, not to mention the other volunteers who wanted to be on regular staff. So with a much larger staff base and talent pool, these numbers show that the BRGHS could bring in plenty of visitors to Boggo Road under a not-for-profit management model.