The story of this place
When convicts arrived in Western Australia in 1850, there was no prison to hold them. So they built one. Over five years, convict labour quarried limestone from below the site and constructed the imposing Fremantle Prison, which opened in 1855 and didn't close until 1991 — making it one of the longest continuously operating prisons in the world. The prison's thick limestone walls kept it brutally hot in summer and damp in winter. In the early years, flogging was common; hangings were conducted publicly until 1888.
The prison holds dark records: it was the site of Western Australia's last public hanging in 1888 and its last hanging altogether in 1964. Inmates included Moondyne Joe, the legendary bushranger who escaped so many times the prison built a special escape-proof cell for him — from which he promptly escaped. Today it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of the Australian Convict Sites listing, where night torch tours take visitors into the gallows chamber.