Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison was built in the 1850s by the convicts who would then be held in it, from limestone quarried on the site. It stayed in use as a prison until 1991, and that is the fact that unsettles most visitors: the cell blocks, exercise yards and gatehouse were operating within living memory, so the graffiti and murals left on cell walls are recent as well as old. Tours cover the main cell blocks and yards, and a separate tour goes down into the water tunnels dug beneath the site, part of it by small boat. The buildings are plain and pale, and the sheer length of the main block is what stays with you afterwards.

History

The first convict ship, the Scindian, arrived unexpectedly on 2 June 1850, and Royal Engineers trained the convicts to work the limestone quarried on the site; the prison, designed by Comptroller General Edmund Henderson, saw the southern half of its Main Cell Block built in 1853-1855, with the first prisoners moved in that June. On 17 April 1876, while most guards were at a regatta, six Fenian prisoners were rescued in the Catalpa escape. When the colonial government took over the prison it was renamed Fremantle Prison; growing discontent ended in the riot of 1988, and on 30 November 1991 the last prisoners were moved to a new maximum-security prison at Casuarina. In 2005 it became the first building in Western Australia on the National Heritage List, and in 2010 it was inscribed on the World Heritage List among the Australian Convict Sites (Wikipedia, Fremantle Prison).

What's there

• The main cell block - four storeys of narrow cells along galleries, the core of the site.
• The tunnels - the underground water system, toured partly on foot and partly by boat.
• Prisoner artwork - murals and drawings left on cell walls across different periods.
• The gatehouse and yards - the limestone entrance range and the walled exercise yards behind.

When to go

Tours run daily, and the indoor sections make this a reliable wet weather option in a Perth winter. Book the tunnels tour ahead: places are limited, there is an age limit and a safety briefing, and it fills first in school holidays. Torchlight tours run in the evening. The middle of a Fremantle summer day is hot in the yards, so aim for morning.

Things to know

It is a prison, and the recent history makes it heavier going than a distant convict ruin; some visitors find it grim rather than interesting. Tours are the only way inside, they run to a timetable, and combined tickets add up quickly. The tunnel tour involves ladders, confined spaces and getting slightly wet. Cell blocks are cold in winter and stuffy in summer.

Nearby

The Fremantle West End streets and the fishing harbour are ten minutes downhill.