By Carolyn Webb
The former Pentridge prison could equal Old Melbourne Gaol for visitor numbers when its doors are thrown open to the public, the National Trust says.
Visitors will be able to sleep in converted cells and stroll through the notorious H Division as part of Melbourne’s newest tourist attraction, to be run by the trust.
Pentridge precinct manager Michael Wade, left, and the National Trust’s Victorian CEO Simon Ambrose in the former Pentridge Prison’s A Division.Credit: Justin McManus
Three 19th century bluestone cell blocks – Divisions A, B, and H that have remained mostly untouched since the prison closed in 1997 – will be publicly accessible for the first time.
Many cells have prisoner graffiti, poems and crossed-off “days till I get out” scrawled on walls, metal bed frames and floors worn down by inmates since the 1860s.
Some of B Division’s cells will be converted into 19 hotel suites run under the Adina hotel brand, with some doors cut into walls to provide more room.
The trust’s Victorian chief executive, Simon Ambrose, said he is ecstatic and excited the trust will manage tourism at the site, after 18 months of talks with the Pentridge site’s owner, Shayher Group.
A cell in the 160-year-old A Division with its floor worn down by use.Credit: Justin McManus
The two parties say they will provide funding of “several” million dollars – but didn’t disclose an exact figure. There is, as yet, no government funding.
Mr Ambrose said Pentridge, nine kilometres north of Melbourne CBD, could equal the 150,000 annual visitors that Old Melbourne Gaol welcomed before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Provided the pandemic subsides, the first Pentridge visitors are expected by Spring 2022. Mr Ambrose said it was good news for tourism given the recent demise of the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel at Docklands.
The 19th century two-storey former warders’ residence, just inside Pentridge’s Champ Street main entrance, will be converted into a visitor centre.
Everyone welcome: The National Trust’s Victorian chief executive Simon Ambrose, left, and Pentridge precinct manager Michael Wade at the prison entrance.Credit: Justin McManus
It may display a recreated chaplain’s office, and relics such as hangman’s nooses, “shivs” (prisoners’ improvised knives) and tennis balls once containing drugs that were thrown over the prison walls.
In Pentridge’s H Division, visitors will see rock breaking yards. Its cells held convicted murderer Ronald Ryan, before he was hanged in 1967, and standover man Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read.
On a B Division yard wall, an X painted by guards marks where, in a 1965 escape, Ryan and fellow inmate Peter Walker vaulted a five-metre wall before a shootout with guards, with one guard shot dead.
Michael Wade, the Pentridge precinct manager for Shayher, said A, B and H Divisions “are the most intact and as-they-were parts of the prison before its closure”.
Prisoners in the exercise yard at Pentridge Prison in 1983.Credit: The Age Archives
He said to prepare for tourists, works are being done to provide disabled access, better lighting, rewiring and installing information boards.
Augmented reality, virtual reality and extended reality displays are being considered.
From the 1860s, A Division was a women’s prison, but in later years held short-term petty male criminals and car thieves. B Division held longer-term and violent offenders.
H Division was for the most violent and troublesome inmates.
Ronald Ryan was the last person to be executed in Australia. He was hung at Pentridge.Credit: Archive
Mr Ambrose said the Pentridge Prison site would complement Old Melbourne Gaol, in telling Victoria’s penal history.
“It will be a more contemporary story. Old Melbourne Gaol closed in the 1920s, this one closed less than 25 years ago.
“People haven’t been, and they’ll be excited to see what’s happening here.”
The Trust and Shayher are working with historians and will call on former inmates, guards and visitors to contribute stories and objects.
Mr Wade has been contacted, for example, by people donating “granddad’s prison guard uniform” and old photographs.
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