Day 81 - Fremantle Prison

• Mandurah - Coogee Beach 
• 53km
• 19°c

We pulled up camp and headed back to Coogee Beach Caravan Park, just out of Fremantle. Jessie met us here and we all headed off to Fremantle Prison hoping the sky would stay clear!

On arrival we purchased a family pass 2 adults & 3 kids!! Man we look good for having a 23 year old daughter! 

In the photo below left, the guard said there was only 1 woman hanged here and showed a photo of her, which people say is the image you can see in the centre window.

Our tour guide has actually worked in the prison as a guard in the 70's for about 10 years, so we were very lucky to have him as our guide - he was very interesting and informative. He told us of the youngest person ever held in the prison; an 8 year old boy for stealing. He had Ella demonstrate prison procedure and explained that this particular part of the days routine was where the saying came from "Toe the line" if this prisoners didn't they could be made to stand on the line for 15 mins and would keep adding 15mins if they didn't behave!

The cell Ella & Jessie and Steve are standing in only ever housed prisoners for 2 hours at a time and only 44 prisoners were ever held in there. This was where prisoners awaiting execution spent their last 2 hours and the time taken to walk from there to the time they were hanged was 1 minute! He also told us of the apparent origin of another saying "hangers on": In the time of public executions prisoners that knew they were going to be hanged payed members of the public to run in and hang onto their legs when the doors dropped.

As we were going past the offices, our guide asked Ella to look into a particular office and tell him what she could see? She picked out the most obvious item; a typewriter. He was most impressed! He'd had a young boy on a tour a couple of weeks earlier ask what it was and said it was actually difficult to try and explain how you press this button and this arm comes up and puts it on the paper, the boy commented so that 's what it was like in the olden days! Ella promptly told him that "we have two at home"!

Coogee Beach Caravan Park, $35 a night, water, power, basic but right on the beach