Parramatta Correctional Centre

 

 

^{Parramatta Correctional Centre is located in North Parramatta. Parramatta Correctional Center was initially known as Parramatta Gaol and the name was changed in 1992. It was operated between 1798 and 2011. It was a medium security prison for males.}

^{First correctional facilities were first established in Parramatta in 1798 housing eight prisoners. In 1799 this facility was destroyed by a fire. It was rebuilt in 1802. A more substantial stone structure was built between 1837 and 1843 by James Houison and Nathaniel Payten on the North Parramatta site.}

^{Parramatta Gaol was formally proclaimed on 2 January 1842. It was closed in 1918 and was used as a mental hospital. In 1922, the centre became a major industrial prison with inmates working in various fields like tailoring, bookmaking, carpentry, tin making and bakery. In 2004, there were calls for the centre to be closed after two inmates escaped by scaling the prison wall using ladders without being seen by guards.}

^{In 1980, Australian rock band Cold Chisel recorded the song "Tomorrow", on their album East. The song portrays the desperation of a Parramatta Gaol inmate on a life sentence who escaped three days earlier, and is facing imminent recapture.}

^“Tomorrow

^{Into the nightside, the city rolls
Rivers of light, a million souls
I’m three days out of Parramatta jail
City of hearts is out of control
Newspaper men are using my name
They hold the power, I hold the blame”}

^{Prior to its closure on 9 October 2011, Parramatta Correctional Centre was Australia's oldest serving correctional Centre. Corrective Services NSW have not determined the future use of the property.}

^{During 2012 the Parramatta corrective centre was used for the setting of a film, The Convict. Two very famous television series Home and Away and Underbelly are also filled there.}

St John’s Church - Parramatta

Reverend Richard Johnson started fortnightly service on the banks of the Parramatta River after the First Fleet came to Parramatta in 1788. Reverend Samuel Marsden was the first resident minister of St John’s Church. In 1796 he dedicated a makeshift building of two old huts at the corner of George & Marsden Streets as the first church building in Parramatta.

The original church was built in 1803 on the present site in the Church Street Mall. The twin towers constructed in 1818 are the oldest surviving part of any Anglican Church in Australia. They are built from handmade sandstock bricks. It is a possibility that it is made by convicts. The church was designed by Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The church building, except the towers, was demolished in the early 1850s after a severe storm as it was no longer fit for use. The twin towers house the mechanism for the tower-clock in the north tower which was installed around 1823. The new building was opened in 1855. In 1923, the memorial bells were installed in the south tower.

Macquarie Timeline

 

1761 Lachlan Macquarie is born on the Isle of Ulva, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Of six boys, only four survived – Hector, Donald, Lachlan and Charles – and one girl, Elizabeth.

1776 Macquarie joined as a Volunteer in the 84^th Regiment, aged 15.

1778 Elizabeth Campbell is born, one of four surviving children. Her father is John Campbell of Airds.

1781 Macquarie transfers to the 71^st Highland Regiment, serves in New York, Charleston and Jamaica. He returns to Scotland, where there is a famine.

1787/1788 Macquarie recruited 17 men for the regiment which enabled him to be given a company to serve in India.

1789 Macquarie is promoted to Captain Lieutenant. The 77^th Regiment embarks on the Hercules for Tellicherry, India. 

1792 Macquarie ill with fever for five weeks.
Meets Miss Jane Jarvis, a ‘Dulcinea’.

1793 Marries on 8 September, makes a home in Bombay, aged 32.
The Regiment is sent to Calicut. The Macquaries purchased two slave boys in Cochin, Hector and George, later freed, remains with Lachlan Macquarie, a faithful servant for all his life.

1796 Jane becomes ill and dies of consumption on July 15^th. Macquarie is inconsolable.

1798/1799 Regiment fighting Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore.

1800 Macquarie promoted to Major.

1803 Returns to England, stays in London Society.

1804 In June he returns to Scotland. Murdoch MacLaine died. Macquarie took possession of newly acquired Jarvisfield. Lachlan Macquarie and Elizabeth Campbell meet.

1805 Lachlan Macquarie proposes to Elizabeth Campbell and she accepts. A long engagement follows.

1806 The last review of the 77^th Regiment, who were returning home. The tenth anniversary of Jane’s death. Macquarie visits her tomb.

1807 On 30^th March, he embarks on the ship Prince of Wales to return to England. He took seven months to reach London. He marries Elizabeth Campbell in the ancient church of St. Peter & Paul, Holsworthy, Devonshire on 3 November. She was 24, he was 46. They moved to Perth, Scotland where the regiment was garrisoned.

1808 In October, Elizabeth gives birth to a daughter, Jane, who dies three months later.

1809 The Rum Rebellion in NSW ends and Gov. William Bligh escapes to Hobart. Lachlan and Elizabeth, embark on the ship Dromedary in May with George Jarvis, Joseph Big, a coachman and Mrs Ovens. Their ship enters the Heads on 30 December 1809.

1810 Macquarie takes his responsibilities as Governor. In January, William Bligh returns to Sydney, then departs again in May.
Celebrates St Patrick’s Day with convicts, holds a May Day Fair at Parramatta, and opens a Race Course in Hyde Park.
Signs an agreement with Alexander Riley, Garnham Blaxcell and D’Arcy Wentworth for a ‘Rum Hospital’. Plentiful harvest, cattle and sheep are increasing.
Macquarie announces that the lower classes are inadequately supplied with livestock. A cow on 30 acres can be purchased and paid for in grain inside 18 months, and must be kept for three years. Sheep from government flocks are available on similar terms.
St Phillip’s church is completed. The turnpike road to Parramatta is completed. A foundation stone is laid for a church at Richmond. Improvements begun on Government House and dairy, Parramatta. Names Liverpool and the Macquarie Towns – Windsor (earlier called Green Hills), Richmond, Castlereagh, Pitt Town and Wilberforce.

1811 Seven Police Districts are named. A new government barge is launched, called Elizabeth.
249 couples are married under Macquarie’s proclamation. A foundation stone for Sydney Hospital is laid.
Elizabeth Macquarie, Lachlan’s mother, dies in Scotland, aged 82. Macquarie visits Van Diemen’s Land, Port Stephens and Newcastle. He sends George Evans to explore Jervis Bay and the Illawarra. Streets are laid out in Parramatta.

1812 Elizabeth Macquarie opens Mr West’s watermill, for grinding wheat.

1813 A Public Fair is held in Parramatta – the first by public authority. Macquarie travels the colony and visits the Nepean River, Emu Island, Hawkesbury River, Wilberforce, Eastern Creek, Rooty Hill. In Liverpool he opens a new store and granary.
Macquarie sees off the expedition by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth to find a way over the Blue Mountains. There is great progress in the roads and buildings of the colony.
The harvest produces plenty of  grain, subsistence for double the population.
By August it is in short supply. With very little rain, severe depletion of livestock. St John’s, Parramatta beings renovations and steeples. The Female Orphan School at Parramatta is begun.

1814 After several miscarriages, Elizabeth gives birth to Lachlan Macquarie Junior on 28^th March. Famine. In October many bushfires. George Evans is sent to explore the land over the mountains, and discovers the Bathurst Plains.
Muster shows that in the first ten years of the colony 5958 convicts had arrived. By 1810 – 11, 500 convicts. From 1812 to 1817 – 3978 males and 681 females. In 30 years – 15, 794 convicts transported to NSW. Francis Greenway arrives in NSW, a convict and a civil architect.

1815 Macquarie and his party, including Elizabeth, found Bathurst. A Supreme Court is convened in NSW.

1816 A school for Aboriginal children opens in Parramatta, to be managed by William Shelly. Government House and dairy improvements are completed.

1817 The Bank of NSW is opened. The first libel action is held in NSW courts, Rev. Marsden v ‘Philo Free’. Floods in the Hawkesbury. Macquarie begins building projects – The Macquarie Lighthouse at South Head, Hyde Park Barracks, the Lancer Barracks Parramatta, Barracks in Liverpool and Windsor, Forts on Bennelong Point and Dawes Point, The Female Orphan School, Sydney. St Andrew’s, Sydney, the Benevolent Asylum, the Mint Building, Parliament House, Government House Stables, St John’s Rectory.

1818 After eight years as Governor, Macquarie sends a letter to London asking to resign. The first stone is laid by Macquarie for second Parramatta Female Factory. Parramatta Military Barracks is begun. Free settlers are allowed to build at Bathurst.
The Female Orphan School at Parramatta is completed. The Colonial hospital at Parramatta is built. Macquarie explores Newcastle by sea.

1819 Ill again, Four weeks confined to home. Parramatta Military Barracks and Parramatta Female Factory are completed.

1820 The Convict Barrack and Lumber Yard are begun. The Commissariat Store in George Street, Parramatta is George Street, Parramatta is begun (not completed until 1825 after Macquarie leaves).

1821 A foundation stone is laid for St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. The Convict Barracks and Lumber Yard completed. Macquarie opens the first Poorhouse in Australia, and the first Blind Institute. He plans the town of Campbelltown, and opens St Luke’s Church, Liverpool. He visits Bathurst and Van Diemen’s Land.

1822 Macquarie turns 60. On a last colonial journey, he organises a gathering of 450 Aborigines and their leaders to introduce them to the new Governor. The colonists of NSW make a farewell gift of plate and £500 to Macquarie. He departs on board the ship Surry with Elizabeth Macquarie, Lachlan Junior, Hector Macquarie his nephew, John and Nancy Moore, George Jarvis and wife Mary Jelly, a stockman, a poulterer and a groom. Arrived in England on the 4^th of July, and returns to Mull in January 1824.

1824 On a visit to London in June he takes ill. Elizabeth and young Lachlan go to him. George Jarvis is with him when he dies on 1 July 1824. He is buried on Mull with his infant daughter, Jane.

1830 Lachlan Macquarie Junior joins the army – the Scots Greys.

1835 Elizabeth Macquarie dies on 11^th March and is buried at Mull.

1836 Lachlan Macquarie Junior marries Isabella Hamilton Dundas. They have no children.

1845 Lachlan Macquarie Junior dies aged 31, ‘dissolute, drunk’. Is buried with his parents on Mull.

 

 

Parramatta Gaol: Building layout, prisoner’s routine and employment - Part 4

Employment - 170 to 240 prisoners were involved in prison industry:

Parramatta linen Service: 100 – 120

Cookhouse: 15 – 20

Building maintenance: 10 – 20

Tailor shop/bootshop: 4 – 14

Light metal shop/Boilerhouse: 3 – 12

Blacksmith: 1 – 7

Ground maintenance: 6

Printing workshop: 3 – 6

Store: 3

Auditorium sweepers: 3

Wing sweepers (3 per wing): 18

Wing storemen: 7

Garbage truck: 1

There were various activities in which prisoners could participate:

Sports – athletics, boxing, volleyball, football, cricket

Leisure: reading, debating, yoga, music, creative writing

Arts & craft: glass painting, copper craft, woodcraft, veneer inlay, oil and water painting

Daily routine of the prisoners:

7am – 8am: Breakfast

8am – 11.45am: Prisoners are housed in the circle or in the protection yard.

11.45am – 12.45pm: Lunch given in their cells

12.45pm – 3pm: Prisoners are housed in the circle or in the protection yard.

3pm – 3.30pm: Prisoners are secured in their cells

3.30pm – 4pm: Dinner

4pm – 7am: Prisoners locked up in their cells

References:

Jervis, James, The Cradle City of Australia: A history of Parramatta; 1788-1961

James Kerr, Parramatta Correctional Centre: Its Past Development and Future Care, Commissioned by the NSW Public Works for the Department of Corrective Services. Sydney, 1995

Public Works Department, Historic Building Group, Parramatta Gaol Historical report, October 1980

Planning & Environment Commission, NSW and Council of the City of Parramatta – Historic buildings and sites: Parramatta; 1975

Terry Kass et al, Parramatta, A Past Revealed, Parramatta City Council, 1996

Parramatta Gaol, Vertical File, Local Studies and Family History Library, Parramatta Heritage and Visitor Information Centre.

Photos from Local Studies and Family History Library, Parramatta Heritage and Visitor Information Centre

Parramatta Gaol: Building layout, prisoner’s routine and employment - Part 3

Northern Sector:

Gatehouse – point to control the access of prisoners, visitors, staff and vehicle access to the gaol. Gatehouse was also the communication centre for calling prisoners to the visits. CC TV cameras were also controlled from the gatehouse.

Three radical accommodation wings

Wing 1 – app 10.8m2 and accommodate 30 long term prisoners

Wing 2 – app 9.3m2 and accommodate 30 cookhouse staff

Wing 3 – app 10.0m2 and accommodate 92 houses remand and reception prisoners

Administration buildings

Bakehouse

Auditorium

Cookhouse – used to provide cooked food for Gaol inmates. Food was prepared in the cookhouse building and was taken to all the wings by trollies for distribution. Cookhouse had the facilities like kitchen area for cooking, vegetable and cold room, meat cold room and showers & toilets.

Chapel – chapel was not only used for service which was conducted by the Salvation Army but was also used for band practice, meditation and prisoners wedding.

Sports Yard

Bootshop – The bootmaker or Tinsmith building separate wings 1, 2 and 3 from wings 4, 5 and 6. The bootshop is been used for various things over the years. Tailor shop was at the first floor whereas ground floor was used for office, building maintenance workshop, prisoners canteen and television repair shop.

Three accommodation wings
 

Wing 4 – app 6.9m2 and accommodate 78 long term prisoners and prisoners under observation

Wing 5 – app 7.2m2 and accommodate 82 long term prisoners

Wing 6 – app 8.0m2 and accommodate 83 segregated and protected prisoners

Boilerhouse – used to generate the power for the prison complex. Later the building was used as printing workshop, light metal workshop, boiler room and store.

Stores and Ablution block building.

Stay tuned for part 4...

Parramatta Gaol: Building layout, prisoner’s routine and employment - Part 2

Area East of the Parramatta Gaol

Between the Dunlop and Barney Streets – there are two timber residences to accommodate officers. These residence s were built in early 1900s. One of the residences on the southern side is used as officers mess and the second one on the northern side is used as recreational hall. The northern residence was used as male detention centre to house 22 prisoners on the weekends.

There are two single story cottages between the Barney and Board Streets. One of the cottages was occupied by 10 parole officers, one welfare officer and administrative staff of the Parramatta Probation and Parole Service. The second cottage was used for administrative functions on 24 hours basis e.g. handling of emergency situations, movement of prisoners for Parramatta, Malwa, Silverwater, Norma Parker centre and Emu Plains Gaols.

Prisoners spending- According to Parramatta Gaol Study conducted by NSW Department of Public Works in 1980–prisoners in Parramatta Gaol earned sum of $12 to $32 per week. Collectively all the prisoners were earning $500,000. Many prisoners were sending all their money at home where as $48,000 annually was spent on radios, record players, tapes, books and art craft material. According to 1974 prison census - 53.7% of Parramatta prisoner population is aged between 26 and 34, 32.4% is under 26.

The Gaol Complex

Parramatta Gaol complex cover is spread in approximately 4.4 hectares - from Dunlop Street in the south to the banks of the Darling Mills Creek in the north. The Gaol area is rectangular in shape (345m x 130m) and is defining three areas of the complex – Gaol, Linen service and sports yard by 6– 7 meter high secure wall.

Linen Service- the Parramatta Linen Service had an industrial laundry, landscaped lawns, a gatehouse and vehicle lock connecting the zone with the Gaol. Linen service used to provide laundry service to the range of state institutions and provide employment to the inmates.

Bootshop – The bootmaker or Tinsmith building separate wings 1, 2 and 3 from wings 4, 5 and 6. The bootshop is been used for various things over the years. Tailor shop was at the first floor whereas ground floor was used for office, building maintenance workshop, prisoners canteen and television repair shop.

Gaol and Sports Yard– The Gaol zone is divided by Bootshop building into two sectors - northern sector and southern sector.

Stay tuned for part 3...

 

Parramatta Gaol: Building layout, prisoner’s routine and employment - Part 1

“Parramatta Correctional Centre was until late 2011, the oldest gaol in original use in Australia. It is the most intact of the pre-1850’s gaols of Australia. The constructional character and quality of the early buildings, in particular the stone slab floors, ashlar walls and timber roof trusses, are exceptional. It is significant in its physical and spatial quality as an enclosed complex” – NSW Heritage register.

Parramatta Gaol is one of the eight maximum security prisons in NSW. Parramatta Gaol is designed for approximately 300 prisoners. The gaol was built by the builders James Houison and Nathaniel.

Payten, during the time of Governor Bourke and Governor Gipps. Governor Bourke appointed surveyor, Mortimer William Lewis to be colonial architect and instructed him to prepare plans for the gaol. Nathaniel Payten’s tender for the erection of the Perimenter Wall was accepted in November 1835 and it was built during 1836. Building progressed through 1836 to 1842 and resulted in a perimeter wall, governor’s house cum chapel and three of the intended five wings. The Gaol was proclaimed by Governor Gipps to be a “Public Gaol, Prison and House of Correction” on 3rd January, 1842 and it was published in the Government Gazette of the 7th January, 1842 and the prisoners were transferred to the site on 15 January 1842. Parramatta Gaol was the oldest gaol complex in Australia and functioned from 1842 until 2012, and is the most intact of the early gaols of Australia.

Over 10 hectares of land in and around the Parramatta Gaol is located is owned by the Department of Corrective Services. Parramatta Gaol has 11 towers. There are three major sites:

Parramatta Gaol

Parramatta Linen service

Merinda Periodic centre and two maintenance complexes

Area West of the Parramatta Gaol

Merinda Periodic Detention Centre – is a single story timber building with galvanised roof. This centre is used to house maximum of 19 female prisoners from Friday to Sunday. During the week, it was used as conference centre and to accommodate staff overnight by the department staff.

Motor maintenance and stores complex – here the repair and maintenance was carried out for all the vehicles associated with Parramatta Gaol and Parramatta Linen Service

PWD compound – group of nine galvanised iron sheds were used to store lawn mowers and other garden tools used by the prisoners.

Stay tuned for part 2 ...