Aug
26
Today we decided to go to Fremantle to take in some of the local sights with Tash’s friends who were visiting from England. We started off in the Fremantle Markets for a couple of hours and ended up buying a few hippie items. The markets are very much like Victoria Markets in Melbourne, but much much smaller. After having lunch in Old Shanghai we walked over to the Fremantle Prison. I haven’t been into the prison before and it was quite an eye opening chilling experience.
A bit of historical information:
The Fremantle Prison is one of Western Australia’s premier heritage sites, centrally located in the heart of the port city of Fremantle. The Prison was built by convicts in the 1850’s and was closed as a place of incarceration in 1991 after 136 years of continuous use. It was opened to the public in 1992 as a tourist site and in recognition of its heritage value.
The site is listed on the Australian Heritage Commission’s Register of the National Estate, on the Heritage Council of Western Australia’s Register of Heritage Places and in the Fremantle West End conservation area. Many of the buildings in the precinct are also listed with the National Trust of Australia (WA).
Walking through the different cell blocks was so eerie as the guide explains how the prisoners were treated and what went on behind the high walls with razor wire. Even though it has been over 15 years since the prison gates were shut it still felt like the building was still inhabited. From the kitchen and cell blocks we made our way “out back” where we were shown the punishment area where prisoners were tied to a frame and were flocked with whips and locked away in solitary confinement. The final part of the tour took us to the gallows where prisoners on death row were executed by hanging. The chilling *CLANG* of the lever that releases the trapdoor where the prisoner was standing sent a shiver down my spine… Even though no one was standing on the platform, it made you feel quite emotional being in the room where 43 men had been sentenced to death…
From all of the paintings and grafitti on the walls throughout the exercise yards and cells, one thing was clear… all the men that had been incarcerated behind these bars dreamed of being free one day…