Melbourne Gaol

Each cell looks like this. There's a story and a death mask of the criminal who lived in there long long time ago. Although most of them committed the same kind of crime, murder, but their stories were very different and it's quite interesting to read each of them.

We also went for the watch house tour in another building beside. The tour was fun as they made us really looked like we've committed a crime. We went in a group and we were given a criminal character and what crime we have 'committed'. When the sergeant asked us a question, we had to reply "yes, sergeant" or "no, sergeant". The sergeant looked serious but he was funny. Haha. We also had to stand in a line and show him our hands. He said that people can hide drugs or whatever weapon in between their fingers. Then turn back and hands on the wall so that he can check the bottom of our shoes. Then we spent a 'night' in a cell (he just locked us in a cell and switched off the lights for 5 minutes). Haha. We also have a mugshot photo and one behind the bars photo and we looked so happy going to the jail. LOL! I will update once I got the photos from Vivien.

Life in the gaol: a series of bells measured out the prisoner's day. They rang to tell inmates when to eat, pray, work, exercise or sleep. Everything was regulated, silent and anonymous. When prisoners were locked in their cells at night, total silence prevailed. Also during the day, they worked in silence.

The infamous Irish Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly. He sort of represents the real Robin Hood.

This is Ned Kelly's cell and a whole lot of stories about him, including his family tree.

Ned Kelly's death mask.

We didn't expect to have so much more criminal stories to read when we reached the second floor, and it was near the closing time already. Lol.

A pro escapee who escaped twice and enjoyed his freedom for over 10 months before the police could recognise him.

And some of them were just having an awfully bad day. This murder case was the first case to track the criminal by using hair sample. However, they've caught the wrong person and so this innocent guy was executed. Before his execution, he loudly swear that he's 100% innocent. Only many many years later, modern researchers took another 12 years to investigate every detail in this case and finally they were fully convinced that this man was innocent, making him the first person executed in Australia to be pardoned.

Baby farming case and the first woman to be executed in Victoria.

When we heard someone rang the bell, saying 'the gaol is closing', then only we made our way to the exit. We went there in the afternoon and I didn't expect to spend such a long time in the jail until we have to leave right at their closing time. Lol. Overall it was fun and it's an interesting place to go if you like crime stories.