Old Melbourne Gaol (Pronounced: J-A-I-L)

Wednesday was a big day for me... MY VISA EXTENSION was APPROVED! I was quite frustrated because although it was a simple process once I got to the immigration office, it was made out to be such a BIG deal for the past 4 months! I had all this paperwork to prove that I was just going to be travelling including a letter from my employer, bank statements, blah blah blah... and the agent basically sifted through them and stamped my passport! So yay... I can travel!



Meagan and I sitting on a windowsill outside the jail.






Wednesday night, Meagan and I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol which was where 135 hangings occurred, most famously that of Ned Kelly in 1880. The jail was established in 1841 and is Melbourne's oldest. The night tour was a theatrical performance of what happened many years ago in this jail and given in the dark jail with only a single candle burning.

Immediately I knew this was gonna be pretty creepy because the weather was cold and rainy and they didn't let us into the dark building until the "tour" started. We were sent into a completely dark jail and told to form a semi-circle around a single candle burning on the floor. As soon as we had just started to squirm a little bit, doors started slamming and chains jingling... creepy!

Then a man with a mask over his face walked his way down the stairs mumbling to himself... he turned out to be one of the head executioner and led us on the tour. We all went into one cell and the door was shut while he explained the lack of comfort offered to the sleeping inmates. Just as we started feeling clausterphobic, a bell rang and we moved to the torture area where the executioner demonstrated whippings and explained how the hangings were meticulously calculated based on the weight and height of the convict... YIKES!

On display were "death masks" which were made just after the inmates' death by shaving their heads and creating wax molds. There were even eyelashes and facial hair on some of them!!! It was rather gross! Afterwards we were allowed to walk around the jail and view it as a museum and read about some of the inmates. I even read a 4 page hand written letter from one man to his parents detailing some of his "unavoidable" murders.



This is Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous hanged man. Next to his "death mask" is the last gun he ever shot.













A look down the main hallway with cells on the left and right. There were 3 stories of cells and the door ways were only about 6 feet high!