Albany 2026: Once a place of punishment, Albany’s Old Gaol now draws tourists to learn about convict history

Albany’s Old Convict Gaol remains one of the city’s most historically significant landmark that provides insights into WA’s convict era. Built in 1851, the gaol operated for more than 50 years, holding men, women and occasionally children for crimes ranging from petty theft to more serious offences. The gaol was built by convicts who were forced to walk from Perth to Albany under the command of Lieutenant Crossman and Mr Broomhill. After arriving, they established a camp and began quarrying granite from Mt Melville to build the prison themselves. Albany Historical Society chief executive Andrew Eyden said the circumstances surrounding the gaol’s construction reflected the harsh realities of the convict era. “They worked to build their own gaol and then locked themselves up in it,” he said. Once built, the conditions inside the gaol were harsh and unforgiving, with cramped cells, minimal ventilation, isolation cells and limited sanitation for the convicts who were inside. Mr Eyden said the convicts played a crucial role in shaping Albany’s early settlement, with each man having a trade or skill. “They all had to have a skill,” he said. “They came here with those skills to build roads, clear land and build buildings.” Mr Eyden said there was a system that allowed locals to temporarily hire convicts from the gaol for their personal use. “When the convicts were here, you could come and hire them and take him home with you and he could work for you for however long you needed him,” Mr Eyden said. “You would pay him at the end of it, a small payment, bring him back and drop him off and then you might take another one who has a different skill. “He might have been a stonemason and now you might want a carpenter next.” The old gaol was also the site of some of the most notorious executions at the time. One was that of prisoner Peter McKean, who was convicted of murdering another inmate. Mr Eyden said the execution was carried out publicly, reflecting the brutal attitudes of the time. “They hung him in the courtyard around the back side ... school kids from the Albany Primary School came to watch the hanging,” he said. The prison held some of the biggest murderers of the time, including Frederick Bailey, who murdered his two wives and four children. He was held in the Albany Gaol until his extradition to Melbourne, where he was hanged on May 23, 1892. Mr Eyden said the Old Gaol remained vital to Albany’s understanding of its history. “It’s vital for our sense of who we are, where we come from, what we are now and also to learn some things that we did back in the day that were really pretty horrendous,” he said. “I think that you need to know these things as a reminder of what not to go back to.” Today, the former prison is a tourist attraction, enabling people to tour the old gaol and discover the history of Albany’s convict past.