One of the main attractions Tasmania has to offer the interested tourist is the rustic charm of places like Richmond and Evandale, the colonial magnificence of Clarendon House and such. It looks rather quaint and charming today, but our walk through the cramped confines of Richmond Gaol were a chilling reminder of the brutality the whole system was based on.
Several years older than Port Arthur, Richmond Gaol is the oldest intact gaol in Australia, dating back to 1825. The original structure, which provided night and day quarters for the prisoners and also housed the Gaoler, was erected in stages between 1825 and 1827.
The Gaoler got his own accommodation in 1834, and al wing to accommodate women that incorporated a cookhouse was constructed in 1835, with the surrounding wall added in 1840.
The wall, predictably, was meant to curtail escape attempts from the gaol, and the convicts were likely to try any possible means of escape, removing shingles from the roof, digging under the foundations and removing lintels over windows though how you could manage a surreptitious departure in the overcrowded conditions is hard to imagine.