A slice of advice

This little tipbit comes from the ladies of the Birchip Senior Citizens Club.

Want to cut up your vanilla slice without squashing all the custard from in the middle?

Then place the slice on its side and cut down - perfect portions every time!

The last post for the Diary

A cousin, and a reader of the diary, sent me copy of this photo which is on the Picture Australia database, and part of the collections of the State Libraries of Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The South Australian entry's description has - The iron barque 'Nairnshire', 1027 tons, at anchor. One of the ships owned by The Shire Line / Thomas Law and Co., Glasgow. The negative was taken in 1895.

Return to 'Shelving'

Back in jail

The Old Melbourne Gaol was the first extensive gaol complex in Victoria. The first Melbourne Gaol was built in Collins Street West in 1839-40, but was far too small. A second gaol was built in 1841-4, adjoining the then Supreme Court at the corner of Russell and La Trobe Streets, but this was entirely demolished early in the twentieth century when the Magistrate's Court complex was built.

What was officially a new wing, but really stage one of the third gaol, was built in 1852-4. It was of bluestone rather than sandstone, and had its own perimeter wall. This new design was based upon the Pentonville Model Prison and on the then current prison reform theories of the day. In spite of the amount of building and extension work performed on the Gaol, the complex was consistently overcrowded. It was extended in two stages in 1857-9, and the boundary wall was also extended in 1858-9.

The present north wing, comprising the entrance buildings, central hall and chapel was begun in 1860. In 1862-4 a western cell block, virtually a replica of the present east block, was built to house female prisoners, and the perimeter wall was finally completed in 1864. The west wing extended into what is now the RMIT site, and has since been demolished.

In a review of the penal system in 1870 it was recommended that the gaol be closed and the prisoners be moved to a more 'suitable' location. Between 1880 and 1924 the gaol was slowly rundown and portions of the original site demolished. The gaol was finally closed in 1929. It reopened briefly during the Second World War as a military prison for soldiers who were Absent Without Leave. Later it was a storage depot for the Victorian Police force.

Between 1842 and its closure in 1929 the gaol was the scene of 135 hangings including Australia's most infamous citizen, the bushranger Ned Kelly. Now a National Trust museum, its displays include death masks and histories of famous bushrangers and convicts.

Bushranger Melville's death mask






H.M. Pentridge was built in 1850 and officially closed in 1997and sold in 1999. Originally a stockade consisting of log huts, prisoners worked, slept and were fed in chains. Female prisoners were also at Pentridge until 1956 when Fairlea Female Prison was opened.


With the closure of the Melbourne Gaol in 1926 all executions in Victoria had been carried out in Pentridge. The last man hanged there was Ronald Ryan in 1967. Both Ronald Ryan and Ned Kelly were buried within the prison grounds. Its nickname in the prison environment was “The Bluestone College”. Now the prison is partly demolished and part of the site now new housing development. The façade though still remains.


The prison is off limits but some adventurous souls managed to break in, see their photos at http://www.forbidden-places.net/urban-exploration-h-m-melbourne-s-pentridge-prison

Abandoned asylum

Mayday Hills Hospital (Beechworth Lunatic Asylum) was established in 1867. The total cost of the Beechworth Asylum was almost 108,000 pounds. The plan of the Asylum, which was in the form of a giant E, matched that adopted at Ararat and at the new Metropolitan Asylum at Kew. It operated for almost 130 years until its closure in 1995. During this time it grew to incorporate nearly 53 buildings spread across an 11 hectare site, at its peak accommodating over 1,000 patients. Today, its gardens (planted as a botanical garden of exotic trees and shrubs in the late 19th century) and most of the infrastructure remains, part is now a campus of La Trobe University, accommodation and a restaurant run by the catering course of the uni, a Child Care Centre, and the base for Ghost Tours of the dilapidated sections. Coincidentally, Mayday Hill was named by the then Lieutenant Governor, Charles Joseph La Trobe, after whom the La Trobe University is named, when he visited the area in 1852. You can compare this Gatehouse to the derelict one at Ararat in the previous post. While the design of the two institutions are remarkably similar, one major difference is the frontage, at Beechworth, a fountain was erected in 1887 with a large part of the labour being done by Asylum staff, it has since been removed due to drainage problems, while Aradale still has the remains of the fountain, its pond (currently dry) and balustrade. Finally this photo taken at Ararat is what I'm calling my Narnia shot. It is so reminiscent of the lamp-post from "The lion, the witch and the wardrobe", and it can snow in Ararat!

Mentally abandoned

Previously I’ve mentioned the similarities between Ararat and Beechworth, they both had jails built to the same designs, well they also had mental hospitals built to the same general designs – Aradale in Ararat and Mayday Hills in Beechworth.

Aradale Mental Hospital (Lunatic Asylum) comprises a large main building and associated structures erected largely between 1864-67. The main buildings are constructed in brick, the structures are cement rendered brick Italianate with slate roofs. An engaged colonnade faces the top storey of the central block, which is linked by double storey bridges to long side wings with towers.

John James Clark is credited with designing the complex.
The main approach is from the south via a serpentine drive starting at the Italianate style Gate Lodge, which dates from 1866. The part single, part double storey dwelling was constructed of stuccoed brickwork with slate roofs. Features of the design include the gabled entrance porch, round headed and other window hoods, combination of roof forms, plinth and eaves detailing.



The Ararat Asylum was one of three (the others were Kew and Beechworth) built to replace the controversial Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum in Melbourne. The asylum was built as a town within a town with its own market gardens, piggery and other stock kept on the grounds. It is surrounded by large grounds planted out as formal garden, farm and parkland.


The earliest buildings include the vast main building with its towers, a kitchen and dining room block, a billiard room, a library, school, a large multipurpose hall and 2,100ft of verandahs where patients could enjoy fresh air sheltered from winds and extensive remnants of the encircling ha-ha wall.
Later nineteenth and early twentieth century additions include the farm buildings, convalescent cottages, sun-shades and fever tent. At its height in the 1950s, it had about 900 patients and over 500 staff. The site has also many later buildings and structures, including smaller houses built for attendants after World War Two.

Today the complex is made up of 63 buildings ranging in age from the original wings built in 1860 to the modern forensic unit which was built in 1991. It was closed as an asylum in December 1993 (The Forensics Unit continued till September 1997).
In 2001 with a State Government grant of $7.4m, it granted places to 50 students and became the Aradale campus of Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) part of the Australian College of Wine, though they are only using a portion of the site and the rest is deteriorating.

It isn’t surprising that people say the building is reputedly haunted, it has all the ingredients – large sprawling 19th century buildings with extensive corridors, 1,000 odd deaths, the institutionalised insane.
For a short history of Aradale and its hauntings see http://www.aghs.com.au/aradaleasylum.html
A post on the Beechworth Asylum next.

Still locked up

Beechworth Lock-up

The Beechworth stone lock-up was built in 1867 as police holding cells. The building had a cell for both male and female prisoners held on remand before court appearances. It is believed that Ned Kelly and his mother Ellen were both held here prior to their trials in the nearby courthouse. There were five courts held in the town (Police, Petty Sessions, Mining Board, County and Supreme Court).

Beechworth Jail main entrance

Beechworth Jail was built in 1889, at a cost of 47,000 pounds. A 16-year-old Ned Kelly was imprisoned there for 6 months. A medium security prison, it closed in 2004 and the site was purchased by private contractors. The 3.5-hectare site comprised a governor's residence, administrative buildings, warders' residences, and vacant land, as well as the prison itself. A replacement facility - the $20 million minimum security Beechworth Correctional Centre was opened in January 2005. This is the jail where Glenn Wheatley served.

Obviously using the same government architect is Ararat's J Ward a similar style to the Beechworth Jail. While Beechworth used the local honey coloured granite, J Ward was built of bluestone.

J Ward Main entrance

J Ward in Ararat, started its life as a goldfields prison in 1859. In the mid 1880s the prison buildings were acquired by the Lunacy Department as a temporary housing for the Criminally Insane.

The County Gaol then became a ward (J Ward) of the Ararat Lunatic Asylum where the criminally insane were housed in horrific conditions under the highest security.

The Ward was closed in 1991, and is now a museum.

More on the relationships between Beechworth and Ararat later, and other notable bluestone institutions.

Lock up and abandoned

Following along from my earlier Abandoned posts, I've constructed a few posts on abandoned/unoccupied jails around the region.

Great Western lock-up

When gold was discovered around the Concongella Creek in 1858, a rush began and the town of Great Western was surveyed in 1859. During the gold rush police were first situated in a Police Camp and later a Police Station was established, these are now gone and only the wooden cell remains.

Harrow's Log Jail

Harrow is reportedly the oldest inland town in Victoria. The Harrow log jail built in 1859, from local redgum sawn logs. Police had been stationed at Harrow since 1853, and they used the jail until 1869. It is now one of Harrow's tourist attractions and part of their Sound & Light Show.





Warracknabeal has a new Police Station and only the cell remains on the old site. It did at least have mod cons.

Reshelving

So true.
Of course we want what we shouldn't, the unattainable, the forbidden, the mystery of it all.
What are we recommending? should I have mentioned the vampire book last Monday?