Page 400 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

398  VIC T ORIA

oOld Magistrate’s
Court
Cnr La Trobe & Russell sts. Map 1 C2.
Tel (03) 8663 7228. £ Melbourne
Central. v La Trobe & Swanston sts
routes. Open during school hols.
& 8
The Melbourne Magistrate’s
Court, also called City Court,
occupied this building until
1995. The area was formerly
known as the police precinct –
this is because the court lies
opposite the former police
headquarters, a very striking
Art Deco skyscraper that was Corridor of cells in Old Melbourne Gaol
completed in the early 1940s,
and next door to the Old experience, especially on a night the most compelling exhibits
Melbourne Gaol. tour. Between 1845 and 1929, are the many accounts of
Built in 1911, the court’s it was the site of 133 executions. prisoners who were
façades are made of native While much of the original condemned to die at the gaol,
Moorabool sandstone. The complex has been demolished, accompanied by their death
building’s intricate, Romanesque the imposing Second Cell Block masks. Ned Kelly’s death mask
design features gables, turrets still stands and is home to a is the most famous of those
and arches. It originally fascinating museum. on display. Visitors can also
contained three courtrooms. Ghosts are often reported see the original gallows where
Court One is open to the public at the gaol, which is hardly executions took place.
during school holidays as part surprising given the tragic and Included with a ticket to the
of the Old Melbourne Gaol grisly accounts of prisoners’ Old Melbourne Gaol, visitors
Crime and Justice Experience. lives and deaths. Conditions, can now tour the former city
based on London’s Pentonville Watch House, which served
Model Prison, were grim, as a central “lock up” for police
regulated and silent. When first from 1908 to 1994. With a
incarcerated, prisoners were Charge Sergeant as a guide,
held in solitary confinement visitors are “arrested” and
and were not permitted to mix processed through the lock
with other prisoners until a later up, experiencing first hand an
date, set according to their environment that has not
sentence. Exhibits showing changed since the police and
these conditions include inmates left it. The Watch House
prisoners’ chains and a frame has a long and fascinating
used for flogging. But perhaps history, with characters such as

Ned Kelly
The most well-known execution at the
Melbourne Gaol was that of Ned Kelly,
Ornate Romanesque tower of the Old Australia’s most famous bushranger, on
Magistrate’s Court 11 November 1880. Edward “Ned” Kelly
was the son of Ellen and ex-convict “Red”
pOld Melbourne Kelly. At the time of Ned’s final imprisonment
Gaol and execution, Ellen was serving a sentence
in the gaol’s Female Ward after hitting a
Russell St. Map 1 C2. Tel (03) 8663 policeman over the head at her house Ned Kelly’s death mask
7228. £ Melbourne Central. v La when he came to arrest her son, Dan.
Trobe & Swanston sts routes. Open She was therefore able to visit Ned, who had been captured at
9:30am–5pm daily; also for night tours Glenrowan on 28 June 1880 (see p455). A crowd of 5,000 waited
(check website for details). Closed outside the gaol when Kelly was executed, most of them to lend
Good Fri, 25 Dec. & 8 7 limited. their support to a man perceived to be rightfully rebelling against
∑ oldmelbournegaol.com.au the English-based law and police authorities. In one instance, the
Kelly Gang burned a bank’s records of outstanding loans so they no
Visiting the Old Melbourne longer had to be repaid. The controversy over whether Kelly was
Gaol, Victoria’s first extensive hero or villain continues to this day.
gaol complex, is a chilling
For hotels and restaurants in this area see pp493–4 and pp526–9