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xenithAnd I am woken up at 5 am by the radio beside the bed coming on. Arck. Of course, body insists it is Time To Get Up so know going back to sleep.
And no need to be anywhere before 9 am.
Still if I take it slow over breakfast, getting dressed, walking to train station...
Plans for today are involve Old Melbourne Gaol (I didn't get there last time I was in Melbourne because camera broke that morning and I didn't see the point in going with no camera) and Melbourne Museum (I did get to last time but without working camera and they have some Pompeii exhibition they're pushing -- banners for it at the airport, billboard-sized ads on the road leading from the airport, repeat throughout city). Also some vague idea about going to Victoria Market in between the two for lunch.
First hitch though. My sniffly nose has become a full-on cold so I need to get some tissues, and some other things including a bottle of something to carry around (so I get dehydrated). At least one of these things isn't available at the 7-11 shops and it seems sensible to get everything at once, as I can carry it around in my pockets.
This leads to me wandering about Melbourne Central trying to find the Cole supermarket Iknew thought should be there because it had been in the past. That done, I discovered I'd overestimated the carrying capacity of my pockets, so now I was wondering around trying to find a cheap bag to carry things in. I finally accomplished that back at Coles, but by now it is 10 am. I wasted a ... hour on a simple task. At least I'm back on Real Time again rather than Strange NE Victoria Rural Town Time.
I did duck into an internet cafe for 9 minutes and find a just one page of email. *sniff* Of course this has nothing to do with most of my email being generated by things I do online and therefore as I wasn't doing thing online, there was nothing to generate emails. Or does it?
The Museum opens at 10, and I'm just half a block from a tram that will take me past it so I head that way. When I say past "it" I mean it goes past the Carlton Gardens, where the Royal Exhibition Building is and the museum is behind that.
There's a long, winding queue at the counter, which I don't remember from last time so I assume it's because of the exhibition. A Day in Pompeii is downstairs, apart from the regular museum displays. They don't allow photos in there (bah) and once you go in and leave, that's it. You can't go in again (on the same ticket). It's also crowded, so they're only allowing a limited number of people in at a time.
Sounds a bit more than what I'm up for right then, but I'm there so I hand over my money and get some bits of paper back. I also check-in my bag, glad I don't have to carry it around with me.
One of those pieces of paper gets me into the exhibition and at first it seems that there is a queue of people moving past the exhibits, but I think they were just lining up to look at things one after another. So I duck through the door into the first main room.
It is about this point that I realise when I checked my bag, I forgot to get the tissues out. This is matters a Lot, plus I really hadn't slept that well the night before and I was rather tired of Looking At Things. Which was all making me rather irritable, which is a pity because in other circumstances, I would have really enjoyed all this.
The first room was, I think, about the town. Lots of artefacts from businesses -- amphorae, small scales, medical equipment -- and other happenings in the town, like gladiator armour. The next room focused on inside houses, so furniture and religious statues and other domestic items. I should have been all over this, but it seems more of a chore.
On a room to one side, there was a 7 min 3D film screening. I didn't feel inclined to queue to watch some 3D stuff so I passed on it. Until I noticed the queue for the next filming had disappeared and they were still letting people in. So I ducked in. The film showed a view of the town at 8 am, looking over a roof to a street beyond. That was all. Then 1 pm, exactly the same scene but walls are shaking and roofs are rattling, with some tiles falling off. Then the same scene again a coupe of hours later but all the roofs are covered like a snow scene. And so on, as the walls and roofs collapse, get covered etc. until the final shot with huge walls of grey rolling in. Although they don't roll in, they surge forward and stop, surge forward and stop, surge forward and now everything is covered. A simple idea, but in 3D, very effective and dramatic. Even to cranky, worn out me :)
The next room is descriptions by Pliny the Younger set on a timeline running along a streetscape. It works well after just seeing the 3D film. There is a put near the end that says the pyroclastic surges that covered the town were held up at points by the town's walls, so I wonder if that's what was happening in the final scene of the film.
The next room is about volcanoes, but I pass through this quickly. I am crankier than when I went in, after dealing with badly running nose the whole time, and I'm not inclined to stop and look at anything more. Until I get to the body casts. Now I'm sure you're seen photos of these, but images are nothing compared to seeing the full sizes casts laid out in front of you. They were set out on a circular platform, which I walked around quite a few times.
I have no idea what the next bit of the exhibition was about. There was a film involved. I passed on it all. The exit was through the exhibition shop, which had a lack of decent postcards. Bah.
Done with that, I went into the museum proper. A guy at a desk asked me if I had a ticket. I gave him all the bits of paper and one of them must have counted as a ticket. "Dinosaurs," that way he said, "and Phar Lap that way."
That's about all I wanted to see too.
The dinosaurs are walking along this long platform thing.
I'm thinking this is a Tarbosaurus.
Up close with a... I think from the bones along its neck, it must be an Amargasaurus.
I get distracted by a display of bugs. Lots of cases full of bugs, and following this, find a room of insects and things, which aren't all mounted.
There are LIVE spiders, including red backs & funnel webs, none of which photograph well, and bees and evil ants.
That is the closest my finger ever wants to get to jack jumpers. According to the caption, it's only in Tasmania that people die from these. Odd.
World's longest beetle (Hercules Beetle, Dynastes hercules) & World's largest beetle (Goliath Beetle, Goliathus regis)
Platypus skeleton. I have never seen one before.
I pause to look down at the queue which is now even longer. Back out towards the door though, so you can't see most of it/
Barbed wire.
Condemned by some as 'devil's rope' for causing injury to livestock, barbed wire offered Australian settlers a cheap and practical form of fencing. Unlike fencing made from timer or rick, wire was quick to erect, easily transported and was better able to withstand fire and flood.
This simple technology has significance beyond its original use in agriculture. It has played a central role in the settlement and occupation of land, the incarceration of people, the harnessing of nature and as tool of mass warfare. It has also been used to create music and as a symbol of political expression in popular culture.
The first patents were registered in France in 1860. But the first successful design, Glidden's 'Winner', came from America in 1874. The museum's Jack Chisholm collections has more than 1400 samples, from the early patents of the 1870s to modern razor wire
More interesting than you'd think. These samples, at least those on the left and excepting the fourth form the bottom which is undated, are all form the 1870s and 1880s.
One big red racehorse. *grumbles at reflections* I don't need to give any background for Phar Lap, do I?
The legend of Cobb & Co
This is one of the few surviving coaches directly linked to the famous Cobb & Co coach lines that began during the Victorian gold rush.
Four young Americans, including Freeman Cobb, started Cobb & Co in 1853, to provide passenger transport between Melbourne and the goldfields. Their imported American 'thorough brace' coaches proved ideal for rough bush roads.
By supplying fresh horses at regular staging-posts and employing drivers who knew the routes and stayed sober, Cobb & Co reduced the Melbourne to Bendigo trip to 'just 10 hours.
After the original partners sold out in 1855, others continued the name. Cobb & Co routes expanded west and north across Victoria and beyond, always keeping ahead of the growing railway network. By 1870, Cobb & Co harnessed 6000 horses a day and covered 45 000 km weekly.
This particular coach was built about 1880, pulled by 4 or 5 horses, and carried up to 17 passengers.
There is one last exhibition area that catches my attention -- a forest! In the middle of the museum! Well, sort of at the back, with walls on 3 sides.
But it has birds (loose) and various small animals (contained), like this one.
And there's a tunnel where you can go in underneath and look at more things.
That really is the limit of what I can tolerate in the museum though, so I recover my bag (and tissues!) and head out, with intentions of going to Victoria Market, which is about 6 blocks from the edge of the gardens. It doesn't look very far on the map, but as I'm tired, cranky and my feet are hurting very much, each block suddenly seems much longer. I walk along for a while and while I'm waiting for the lights to change, I check my map to see how much further there is to go. Four blocks -- that's like most of the ways still, but this cross street is apparently the one the Gaol is on. In fact, on the map it's close enough that I should be able to see it from where I am. Oh yes, there is it, about 100 metres away. I could go there instead, and leave the market for tomorrow.
This is the Old Melbourne Gaol Crime & Justice Experience. Russell Street used to be the location of the gaol, the magistrate's court, the city watch house and police headquarters, all of which have moved on.
The first part of the gaol was built in 1841, but quickly became overcrowded so a new cell block was built in 1852, and extended a few years later. This is the building that currently exists & I think the left wing on the model. It's based on the Pentonville system of silence and separation. I've read comments that by the time the Port Arthur separate prison was built, those responsible should have known that this approach didn't work, and that was a couple of years before this block was constructed. Did they think the theory behind it was sound, it was just the way it had previously been put into practice that was flawed?
The next wing, at the front of the model, with the chapel and entrance was added about 1860. The west wing, right side of the model, was added a couple of years later to house women. Now demolished, it was apparently a replica of the existing men's cell block.
Later in the century, operations at the gaol were wound down and the place closed in 1924 or 1929 (depending on whether you want to believe their brochure or their website). In WWII it saw use as a military prison for Australian soldiers who were Absent Without Leave. The National Trust took over it in 1972.
So what we have here is three levels of cells, with walkways and connecting staircases at each end.
Down the far end there, they are doing some noisy dramatisation, but I'm not included to watch it. It is keeping all the visitors out of my way though.
There are displays in most of the cells, on former inmates and life (or death) in the gaol
They're very found of death masks around here.
The displays about former inmates involve a mask, with accompanying information and pictures on the wall.
This one is for Frances Knorr (or here).
The Brunswick Baby Murders
People like Frances and Rudolph Knorr found life desperately hard in Melbourne during the 1890s Depression. Jobs were scarce, there was no state welfare and it was difficult to avoid becoming involved in petty crime.
When Rudolph Knorr was sent to prison in February 1892 for selling furniture being bought on hire purchase, his wife was left pregnant and penniless. She managed by 'baby farming' - looking after children whose mothers could not care for them.
In September the bodies of three babies were discovered in Brunswick. They were buried in the gardens of two houses Frances Knorr had rented. She was arrested and sent for trial in December. The Weekly Time described the 23 year-old woman as "white and careworn".
The public was deeply divided when Knorr was sentenced to be executed. The hangman, Thomas Jones, committed suicide two days before the event. His wife had threatened to leave him if he hanged Mrs Knorr.
Less controversy about Frederick Deeming's execution: serial killer, bigamist and Jack the Ripper suspect. But my photo is too blurry for me to transcribe, so just links: just the facts in the Wikipedia article or online documents from the Victorian Public Records Office
135 executions took place here.
Here.
There are a couple of sample pages from a book The Particulars of Execution. This is a list of weights as a guide for the hang man. Another has sketches of nooses "showing typical knots used on the rope. The placing of the knot behind the ear was important to achieve a clean break. Sometimes photographs were taken or sketches made during an autopsy to demonstrate the efficiency of the technique."
THE HANGMANS BOX
The equipment in the Hangman's Box was used by various hangmen this century and was stored in the Sheriff's Office. The weight was used to stretch the rope while the leather covering the noose helped to prevent lacerations and bruising. The leather covering, introduced in 1939, was waxed to ensure that the brass ring slipped smoothly over the rope. The arm and leg shackles restrained the prisoner before the execution. After the hanging, the body was placed in a canvas bag and removed.
Calico Hood (centre), c. 1875
These were worn by all prisoners held in solitary confinement when outside their cells. The Pentonville system of reform aimed to isolate inmates from each other in all possible ways.
Leather Gloves (bottom left). Photo of caption is hard to read.
These gloves were secured to the prisoner's hands in order to prevent "self abuse" (masturbation)
Mask (top right). Even less chance of reading this one. Something about "an additional form of punishment."
PUNISHMENT CELLS
This recently revealed space was the entrance in the lowest level of the now demolished female cell block. Both male and female prisoners were locked in these 'punishment cells' -- cells with no windows -- for days at a time. The purpose of these cells was to break the prisoner's spirit by total sensory deprivation -- no light, no sound, no human contact and limited food.
South-west door to the 2nd Cell Block. Between 1861 and 1907, all condemned prisoners passed through this door on their way to the gallows in the Central Hall of the Gaol.
Further down the street is the City Watch House where they arrest and charge you, and lock you up :(
Former court buildings.
I am tired now and cold. The weather person that morning has said "11-16o" for the forecast temperature. That's warm for winter, right? Especially in a coastal city. But it was bitterly cold. Outside, hands were so cold it was hard to write on postcard :( Yet two days later in Hobart, it was "4-11o" and quite pleasant. Temperature is misleading.
I went back to Melbourne Central.
While I was there I thought I'd check out the little museum in the shot tower, which you have to access through a shop, which is a bit weird.
Their interactive(?) talk wasn't working though and there wasn't much else to look at in there.
Now, I can't remember why I left there, because there's a train station on the lowest level. In Melbourne City there are five train stations, which form the city loop, one along each side of the city, plus Flagstaff, which isn't open on weekends. So when you're ready to leave, you just go to nearest station. Plus there are trams, which run down most of the streets and stop on each block, so at every intersection you can hop on one and ride it for a block or two.
Oh, that's right. I was looking for the post office. I'm getting mixed up with Sunday.
Melbourne has some rather interesting buildings.
This one is particularly interesting because it's Flinders Street Station. Home! Well, what is passing for home, that being my brother's place, where he still isn't :(
I had worked out that morning that Murrumbeena Station was about 3 blocks closer than Carnegie, so that's where I got off. I checked the map outside the train station and started to walk. A block from the station, was a house being demolished.
I thought I would have noticed that when I walked past in the morning. Lots of bigger houses in this area I hadn't noticed. Ten minutes along, there's a big intersection up ahead. I don't remember that. Or the Chinese Methodist Church. That I would have noticed. OK the intersection is a highway. There is no way I would have not noticed or forgot crossing a highway.
Back track to the nearest bus stop. These have handy little maps on them. They only show the main roads, but I remember Kangaroo Road from that morning because it's an odd name for a street and it's close to the street I'm staying in. So Kangaroo Rd is there, up from the train station and the highway is here, on the other side of the station in the opposite direction. *sigh*
I wouldn't have minded so much if I hadn't stopped and checked a proper map before setting off. Still, I got the photos of the house on the way back so it wasn't a total waste of time.
I try to sit up and watch TV, but by the time I get to 8.30, I've had it. So off to bed, and the alarm is turned off this time!
Wonders if anyone will pick up on the "joke" in that account of the gaol.
And no need to be anywhere before 9 am.
Still if I take it slow over breakfast, getting dressed, walking to train station...
Plans for today are involve Old Melbourne Gaol (I didn't get there last time I was in Melbourne because camera broke that morning and I didn't see the point in going with no camera) and Melbourne Museum (I did get to last time but without working camera and they have some Pompeii exhibition they're pushing -- banners for it at the airport, billboard-sized ads on the road leading from the airport, repeat throughout city). Also some vague idea about going to Victoria Market in between the two for lunch.
First hitch though. My sniffly nose has become a full-on cold so I need to get some tissues, and some other things including a bottle of something to carry around (so I get dehydrated). At least one of these things isn't available at the 7-11 shops and it seems sensible to get everything at once, as I can carry it around in my pockets.
This leads to me wandering about Melbourne Central trying to find the Cole supermarket I
I did duck into an internet cafe for 9 minutes and find a just one page of email. *sniff* Of course this has nothing to do with most of my email being generated by things I do online and therefore as I wasn't doing thing online, there was nothing to generate emails. Or does it?
The Museum opens at 10, and I'm just half a block from a tram that will take me past it so I head that way. When I say past "it" I mean it goes past the Carlton Gardens, where the Royal Exhibition Building is and the museum is behind that.
There's a long, winding queue at the counter, which I don't remember from last time so I assume it's because of the exhibition. A Day in Pompeii is downstairs, apart from the regular museum displays. They don't allow photos in there (bah) and once you go in and leave, that's it. You can't go in again (on the same ticket). It's also crowded, so they're only allowing a limited number of people in at a time.
Sounds a bit more than what I'm up for right then, but I'm there so I hand over my money and get some bits of paper back. I also check-in my bag, glad I don't have to carry it around with me.
One of those pieces of paper gets me into the exhibition and at first it seems that there is a queue of people moving past the exhibits, but I think they were just lining up to look at things one after another. So I duck through the door into the first main room.
It is about this point that I realise when I checked my bag, I forgot to get the tissues out. This is matters a Lot, plus I really hadn't slept that well the night before and I was rather tired of Looking At Things. Which was all making me rather irritable, which is a pity because in other circumstances, I would have really enjoyed all this.
The first room was, I think, about the town. Lots of artefacts from businesses -- amphorae, small scales, medical equipment -- and other happenings in the town, like gladiator armour. The next room focused on inside houses, so furniture and religious statues and other domestic items. I should have been all over this, but it seems more of a chore.
On a room to one side, there was a 7 min 3D film screening. I didn't feel inclined to queue to watch some 3D stuff so I passed on it. Until I noticed the queue for the next filming had disappeared and they were still letting people in. So I ducked in. The film showed a view of the town at 8 am, looking over a roof to a street beyond. That was all. Then 1 pm, exactly the same scene but walls are shaking and roofs are rattling, with some tiles falling off. Then the same scene again a coupe of hours later but all the roofs are covered like a snow scene. And so on, as the walls and roofs collapse, get covered etc. until the final shot with huge walls of grey rolling in. Although they don't roll in, they surge forward and stop, surge forward and stop, surge forward and now everything is covered. A simple idea, but in 3D, very effective and dramatic. Even to cranky, worn out me :)
The next room is descriptions by Pliny the Younger set on a timeline running along a streetscape. It works well after just seeing the 3D film. There is a put near the end that says the pyroclastic surges that covered the town were held up at points by the town's walls, so I wonder if that's what was happening in the final scene of the film.
The next room is about volcanoes, but I pass through this quickly. I am crankier than when I went in, after dealing with badly running nose the whole time, and I'm not inclined to stop and look at anything more. Until I get to the body casts. Now I'm sure you're seen photos of these, but images are nothing compared to seeing the full sizes casts laid out in front of you. They were set out on a circular platform, which I walked around quite a few times.
I have no idea what the next bit of the exhibition was about. There was a film involved. I passed on it all. The exit was through the exhibition shop, which had a lack of decent postcards. Bah.
Done with that, I went into the museum proper. A guy at a desk asked me if I had a ticket. I gave him all the bits of paper and one of them must have counted as a ticket. "Dinosaurs," that way he said, "and Phar Lap that way."
That's about all I wanted to see too.
The dinosaurs are walking along this long platform thing.
I'm thinking this is a Tarbosaurus.
Up close with a... I think from the bones along its neck, it must be an Amargasaurus.
I get distracted by a display of bugs. Lots of cases full of bugs, and following this, find a room of insects and things, which aren't all mounted.
There are LIVE spiders, including red backs & funnel webs, none of which photograph well, and bees and evil ants.
That is the closest my finger ever wants to get to jack jumpers. According to the caption, it's only in Tasmania that people die from these. Odd.
World's longest beetle (Hercules Beetle, Dynastes hercules) & World's largest beetle (Goliath Beetle, Goliathus regis)
Platypus skeleton. I have never seen one before.
I pause to look down at the queue which is now even longer. Back out towards the door though, so you can't see most of it/
Barbed wire.
Condemned by some as 'devil's rope' for causing injury to livestock, barbed wire offered Australian settlers a cheap and practical form of fencing. Unlike fencing made from timer or rick, wire was quick to erect, easily transported and was better able to withstand fire and flood.
This simple technology has significance beyond its original use in agriculture. It has played a central role in the settlement and occupation of land, the incarceration of people, the harnessing of nature and as tool of mass warfare. It has also been used to create music and as a symbol of political expression in popular culture.
The first patents were registered in France in 1860. But the first successful design, Glidden's 'Winner', came from America in 1874. The museum's Jack Chisholm collections has more than 1400 samples, from the early patents of the 1870s to modern razor wire
More interesting than you'd think. These samples, at least those on the left and excepting the fourth form the bottom which is undated, are all form the 1870s and 1880s.
One big red racehorse. *grumbles at reflections* I don't need to give any background for Phar Lap, do I?
The legend of Cobb & Co
This is one of the few surviving coaches directly linked to the famous Cobb & Co coach lines that began during the Victorian gold rush.
Four young Americans, including Freeman Cobb, started Cobb & Co in 1853, to provide passenger transport between Melbourne and the goldfields. Their imported American 'thorough brace' coaches proved ideal for rough bush roads.
By supplying fresh horses at regular staging-posts and employing drivers who knew the routes and stayed sober, Cobb & Co reduced the Melbourne to Bendigo trip to 'just 10 hours.
After the original partners sold out in 1855, others continued the name. Cobb & Co routes expanded west and north across Victoria and beyond, always keeping ahead of the growing railway network. By 1870, Cobb & Co harnessed 6000 horses a day and covered 45 000 km weekly.
This particular coach was built about 1880, pulled by 4 or 5 horses, and carried up to 17 passengers.
There is one last exhibition area that catches my attention -- a forest! In the middle of the museum! Well, sort of at the back, with walls on 3 sides.
But it has birds (loose) and various small animals (contained), like this one.
And there's a tunnel where you can go in underneath and look at more things.
That really is the limit of what I can tolerate in the museum though, so I recover my bag (and tissues!) and head out, with intentions of going to Victoria Market, which is about 6 blocks from the edge of the gardens. It doesn't look very far on the map, but as I'm tired, cranky and my feet are hurting very much, each block suddenly seems much longer. I walk along for a while and while I'm waiting for the lights to change, I check my map to see how much further there is to go. Four blocks -- that's like most of the ways still, but this cross street is apparently the one the Gaol is on. In fact, on the map it's close enough that I should be able to see it from where I am. Oh yes, there is it, about 100 metres away. I could go there instead, and leave the market for tomorrow.
This is the Old Melbourne Gaol Crime & Justice Experience. Russell Street used to be the location of the gaol, the magistrate's court, the city watch house and police headquarters, all of which have moved on.
The first part of the gaol was built in 1841, but quickly became overcrowded so a new cell block was built in 1852, and extended a few years later. This is the building that currently exists & I think the left wing on the model. It's based on the Pentonville system of silence and separation. I've read comments that by the time the Port Arthur separate prison was built, those responsible should have known that this approach didn't work, and that was a couple of years before this block was constructed. Did they think the theory behind it was sound, it was just the way it had previously been put into practice that was flawed?
The next wing, at the front of the model, with the chapel and entrance was added about 1860. The west wing, right side of the model, was added a couple of years later to house women. Now demolished, it was apparently a replica of the existing men's cell block.
Later in the century, operations at the gaol were wound down and the place closed in 1924 or 1929 (depending on whether you want to believe their brochure or their website). In WWII it saw use as a military prison for Australian soldiers who were Absent Without Leave. The National Trust took over it in 1972.
So what we have here is three levels of cells, with walkways and connecting staircases at each end.
Down the far end there, they are doing some noisy dramatisation, but I'm not included to watch it. It is keeping all the visitors out of my way though.
There are displays in most of the cells, on former inmates and life (or death) in the gaol
They're very found of death masks around here.
The displays about former inmates involve a mask, with accompanying information and pictures on the wall.
This one is for Frances Knorr (or here).
People like Frances and Rudolph Knorr found life desperately hard in Melbourne during the 1890s Depression. Jobs were scarce, there was no state welfare and it was difficult to avoid becoming involved in petty crime.
When Rudolph Knorr was sent to prison in February 1892 for selling furniture being bought on hire purchase, his wife was left pregnant and penniless. She managed by 'baby farming' - looking after children whose mothers could not care for them.
In September the bodies of three babies were discovered in Brunswick. They were buried in the gardens of two houses Frances Knorr had rented. She was arrested and sent for trial in December. The Weekly Time described the 23 year-old woman as "white and careworn".
The public was deeply divided when Knorr was sentenced to be executed. The hangman, Thomas Jones, committed suicide two days before the event. His wife had threatened to leave him if he hanged Mrs Knorr.
Less controversy about Frederick Deeming's execution: serial killer, bigamist and Jack the Ripper suspect. But my photo is too blurry for me to transcribe, so just links: just the facts in the Wikipedia article or online documents from the Victorian Public Records Office
135 executions took place here.
Here.
There are a couple of sample pages from a book The Particulars of Execution. This is a list of weights as a guide for the hang man. Another has sketches of nooses "showing typical knots used on the rope. The placing of the knot behind the ear was important to achieve a clean break. Sometimes photographs were taken or sketches made during an autopsy to demonstrate the efficiency of the technique."
THE HANGMANS BOX
The equipment in the Hangman's Box was used by various hangmen this century and was stored in the Sheriff's Office. The weight was used to stretch the rope while the leather covering the noose helped to prevent lacerations and bruising. The leather covering, introduced in 1939, was waxed to ensure that the brass ring slipped smoothly over the rope. The arm and leg shackles restrained the prisoner before the execution. After the hanging, the body was placed in a canvas bag and removed.
Calico Hood (centre), c. 1875
These were worn by all prisoners held in solitary confinement when outside their cells. The Pentonville system of reform aimed to isolate inmates from each other in all possible ways.
Leather Gloves (bottom left). Photo of caption is hard to read.
These gloves were secured to the prisoner's hands in order to prevent "self abuse" (masturbation)
Mask (top right). Even less chance of reading this one. Something about "an additional form of punishment."
PUNISHMENT CELLS
This recently revealed space was the entrance in the lowest level of the now demolished female cell block. Both male and female prisoners were locked in these 'punishment cells' -- cells with no windows -- for days at a time. The purpose of these cells was to break the prisoner's spirit by total sensory deprivation -- no light, no sound, no human contact and limited food.
South-west door to the 2nd Cell Block. Between 1861 and 1907, all condemned prisoners passed through this door on their way to the gallows in the Central Hall of the Gaol.
Further down the street is the City Watch House where they arrest and charge you, and lock you up :(
Former court buildings.
I am tired now and cold. The weather person that morning has said "11-16o" for the forecast temperature. That's warm for winter, right? Especially in a coastal city. But it was bitterly cold. Outside, hands were so cold it was hard to write on postcard :( Yet two days later in Hobart, it was "4-11o" and quite pleasant. Temperature is misleading.
I went back to Melbourne Central.
While I was there I thought I'd check out the little museum in the shot tower, which you have to access through a shop, which is a bit weird.
Their interactive(?) talk wasn't working though and there wasn't much else to look at in there.
Now, I can't remember why I left there, because there's a train station on the lowest level. In Melbourne City there are five train stations, which form the city loop, one along each side of the city, plus Flagstaff, which isn't open on weekends. So when you're ready to leave, you just go to nearest station. Plus there are trams, which run down most of the streets and stop on each block, so at every intersection you can hop on one and ride it for a block or two.
Oh, that's right. I was looking for the post office. I'm getting mixed up with Sunday.
Melbourne has some rather interesting buildings.
This one is particularly interesting because it's Flinders Street Station. Home! Well, what is passing for home, that being my brother's place, where he still isn't :(
I had worked out that morning that Murrumbeena Station was about 3 blocks closer than Carnegie, so that's where I got off. I checked the map outside the train station and started to walk. A block from the station, was a house being demolished.
I thought I would have noticed that when I walked past in the morning. Lots of bigger houses in this area I hadn't noticed. Ten minutes along, there's a big intersection up ahead. I don't remember that. Or the Chinese Methodist Church. That I would have noticed. OK the intersection is a highway. There is no way I would have not noticed or forgot crossing a highway.
Back track to the nearest bus stop. These have handy little maps on them. They only show the main roads, but I remember Kangaroo Road from that morning because it's an odd name for a street and it's close to the street I'm staying in. So Kangaroo Rd is there, up from the train station and the highway is here, on the other side of the station in the opposite direction. *sigh*
I wouldn't have minded so much if I hadn't stopped and checked a proper map before setting off. Still, I got the photos of the house on the way back so it wasn't a total waste of time.
I try to sit up and watch TV, but by the time I get to 8.30, I've had it. So off to bed, and the alarm is turned off this time!
Wonders if anyone will pick up on the "joke" in that account of the gaol.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 10:53 am (UTC)Probably not, no!
You have wonder about arresting young kids for vagrancy though. I mean, huh?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 11:30 am (UTC)Actually, when you put it that way... it would provide them with a roof over their head and meals. Maybe it's not as silly as it seems.