Pentridge - Behind the Bluestone Walls | 
Accompanied my grandpa to a National Trust tour of Pentridge Prison - Cell Block H. Very interesting look at some very grim, not too distant history.
My favourite part was right at the end when the tour guides swipe card failed to open the door and we all collectively realised we were locked in (happily there was another door that did open)
The audio component of the tour was excellent, it was narrated by past occupants of cell block h
thegirlwiththelibrarybag The audio tour was super cool, in that it knew which room you were in and played the corresponding information - I heard about the psychological warfare the guards played on the prisoners, I heard about the liquorice mile - the induction that prisoners would face when transferred to H - which was essentially an extremely savage beating from the guards. One past inmate spoke of biting through his lip in an effort to not give the guards the 13mo
thegirlwiththelibrarybag satisfaction of crying out. Another spoke of overhearing the beating of a young man by a guard who was yelling at him, asking “why he let men fuck him” - this same prisoner recounts when he finally saw the beaten man - how young he looked and how unfair it all seemed. I also saw the stone breaking yards - where they had to meet impossible quotas and break bluestone down to the size of small pebbles. 13mo
thegirlwiththelibrarybag Several former Pentridge prisoners have gone on to be writers - including Mark “Chopper” Read, Gregory David Roberts who wrote Shantaram, Ray Mooney (playwright), John Killick. Notable too - were the late Jack Charles, indigenous actor and community leader & Noel Tovey an indigenous actor and choreographer. 13mo
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Lizpixie Our prisons have a lot of grim history don‘t they? NSW has Parramatta Gaol, Long Bay & Maitland. There‘s Fremantle Prison in WA etc. Going farther back there‘s Cockatoo Island, Norfolk Island & Port Arthur(which had a reputation as worse than hell). I mean, our whole country was one big prison not that long ago. Things have changed dramatically since then, but I still wouldn‘t want to be in Goulburn SuperMax now! 13mo
thegirlwiththelibrarybag @Lizpixie, I did wonder how different prison was now. The line between reform and control via imposing punishment seemed completely destroyed at Pentridge. 13mo
LeeRHarry That‘s just down the road from me - was there on Sun…well at the Palace Cinema for the French Film Festival 😊 The tour sounds interesting. 13mo
thegirlwiththelibrarybag @LeeRHarry, I really love how it‘s been redeveloped. The tour was great - I am intrigued by the night tour (my grandpa wasn‘t 😂) 13mo
Gissy So interesting! 13mo
CarolynM I visited Yatala (the Adelaide equivalent of Pentridge and still operating) when I was a student. Fascinating and disturbing experience. (edited) 13mo
thegirlwiththelibrarybag @CarolynM, fascinating and disturbing describes it in a nutshell 13mo
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