Western Australia’s Fremantle Jail
Visit a Prison Built By Convicts in Perth’s Port City
Fremantle Prison is one of Western Australia's most historic buildings. Built by convicts in the 1850s, today it is a sightseeing must when visiting Perth.
Settlement of Western Australia’s capital city, Perth, first began in 1829, and by 1850 a large prison was needed to house transported convicts from Britain. During most of the 1900s, Fremantle Prison was the largest jail in the state, until it closed in 1991 with the remaining prisoners transferred to more modern facilities. To visit it today, less than twenty years on, it seems a little frightening to imagine that it was housing prisoners as recently as 1991.
Today the Fremantle Prison is a fantastic sightseeing spot, with interesting and varied tours available, showcasing both the typical prison life over the decades and artefacts and artwork relevant to the jail.
Daytime Prison Sightseeing Tours
Without taking part in a tour, you can only enter the gatehouse and visitors’ center. If you visit the Fremantle Prison during the day, the most common way to see inside is to take a “Doing Time” tour. It usually takes a bit over an hour, and shows both the interesting and the morbid sides of prison life. Highlights here include the exhibition of the cell interiors as they changed over the decades, the exercise yards, gallows, prison chapel and artwork done by some of the prisoners as part of an art therapy program.
The “Great Escapes” tour is similar in length, but highlights particular parts of the prison where escape attempts were made. Visitors are also shown the women’s prison and the rifle range.
Evening Tours of the Prison by Torchlight
If you like to add an eerie dimension to your sightseeing, you can take a one-and-a-half hour evening tour using only flashlights to light the way. These are available on Wednesdays and Fridays and the guides tell many stories about the supernatural and haunted areas of the prison. There have even been a few ghost sightings, so nervous sightseers are advised to choose another tour!
Under the Fremantle Prison: Tunnels Tours
A recent addition to the Fremantle Prison tours is the chance to go under the prison through a network of tunnels originally built by the convicts as part of a water supply system. Visitors are taken down by a ladder system and then guided through the tunnels in small flat boats. This tour takes about two and a half hours.
Details for Visitors to Fremantle Prison
The Fremantle Prison is located in The Terrace, Fremantle, within walking distance from the Fremantle train station. It is open seven days a week, closing only on Good Friday and Christmas Day, and opening daily from 10 o’clock until 5 o’clock.
