Excellent Tour at Fremantle Prison

I'm a few weeks late in blogging about this but had to share a really cool activity that T and I did with friends a few weeks ago.

Grant and Brenda were smart to bring their camera for a few pics, even if we couldn't have them the whole time. Here we all are in front of the prison.

T had done the Doing Time tour with Aunt Pat and Uncle Hank in August.

Fremantle Prison was built in the 1850's to house convicts sent over from England. As the colony grew, they had an extremely difficult time finding enough clean water. The population was decreasing because settlers were moving east for better living/farming conditions.

Then, they discovered a huge supply of water underground, 20 meters below the prison. So, with all the free labor provided by the prison, they began to dig tunnels to collect the water. It was horrible work- chipping away at limestone in the dark, soaking wet, for 12 hours a day. And with no drills or machines. They did it all with axes and picks, hauling the bits of limestone away in buckets. And the tunnels go on and on.

They were able to pump huge amounts of clean water and help the colony survive and made Fremantle Harbor a popular spot for ships sailing on the Indian Ocean.

The prison was finally closed in 1991, after nearly 140 years of housing male, female, and juvenile convicts. From debtors to maximum security inmates.

You can read more information about Fremantle Prison at the link below:
http://www.fremantleprison.com.au/History/Pages/default.aspx

Now, the prison offers a variety of tours. The 4 of us took the Tunnels Tour which was an adventure! We were suited up in all kinds of safety gear. (The small photos are from the website as cameras were not allowed in the tunnels)

I wish there was a photo of our breath tests. To insure that no one is intoxicated before taking the tour, we all had to be breathalized!

Helmets with lamps, paper jumpsuits, rubber boots, safety harnesses, and life preservers. We were taught how to use our harnesses that are attached to the ladders that brought us down 20 meters.

Then we walked, sometimes bent over, through the dry tunnels, checking out all kinds of cool artifacts.The last part of the tour was in little row boats. Prison guards would have used something similar to navigate the wet tunnels, but prisoners would have just spend their entire shift cold and soaking wet.

There were several times that the guide would order the lights turned off so we could understand just how dark and creepy it was down there. We even rowed ourselves out of the last 20 or so meters in the pitch black. What an experience!

No night out in Fremantle would be complete with a trip to the Little Creatures Brewery. Pizza, chilli mussels, nachos, and a lager. Yum!