THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL - IS IT REALLY HAUNTED?

SIX YEARS OF OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION AT THE OLD ADELAIDE GAOL - THE HISTORY

PART 1

A BRIEF HISTORY

Adelaide gaol started its life in 1841 and continued in service until it was finally closed in 1988. The Gaol was built in stages with additions being built onto it until 1847. It was questioned at the time as to why such an expensive gaol was needed, especially in a State that was a free colony not a penal. In fact the building of the gaol nearly bankrupted South Australia at the time, and questions were asked. However it soon proved its worth, and started to fill up fairly rapidly.

An old aerial view of the gaol

Over it's 147 years of service, an estimated 300,000 men and women have passed through its doors and 45 prisoners were executed on the premises, where they remain to this day. One of the more famous being Elizabeth Woolcock, hung in 1873 and the only woman to have been hung in South Australia. She was found guilty of poisoning her husband with arsenic. However, he was already a sick man and was being treated by several different doctors all of whom would have had small traces of arsenic in their medication. A retrial was held recently and the same evidence was presented, at which poor Elizabeth was found not guilty. Ironically she had tried to commit suicide a year earlier by hanging herself, but the attempt failed. Some people feel she should not be there now, and still leave flowers on her grave.

Between 1840 and 1964 one woman and 44 men were hanged at Adelaide Gaol in 4 separate areas. Portable gallows were used for 20 of these people; a further 21 were hung in the New Building and four in the hanging tower. All of these people are still buried at the gaol and their graves can still be visited along the walkways.

Graves at the Adelaide Gaol. The prisoners were only given initials, prisoner number and date of hanging which, were painted onto the wall, to be remembered by. They were not put in sanctified ground as it was seen as punishment for eternity.

BUT WHAT OF THE HAUNTINGS?

Stories have been coming out of the gaol for many years now. We had reports of staff working in the office on their own, who would hear footsteps crossing the upper floor when nobody was there and sounds of furniture moving around. Of another volunteer, who upon leaving the office to deal with the public in the shop, would return to find her paperwork strewn across the floor, even after she started placing mugs of coffee on them. At one point she told it to stop as it was scaring her, and it didn't happen again. This behaviour was maybe in keeping with the first Governor Ashton, who was known to have a sense of humour. He used to live upstairs and eventually died up there due to weight complications as he was a very large man. In fact he was so large that when they found him, rigamortous had set in,and they had to lower him out of a window with ropes as they couldn't fit him through the doors. Not a very dignified ending.

Then there were stories of a lady dressed in white. In fact one school group, after a sleepover, approached staff the next day and asked where the mannequin had gone from one of the yards as it had been there the night before. They were informed there had been no mannequin in that yard, but they insisted they had seen a lady dressed in white just standing there. The only lady on record that ever wore a white dress in the Gaol, had been Elizabeth Woolcock at her execution. Was she still haunting the place?

'A' Wing

But the stories that interested us the most were the ones that were coming out of 'A' Wing where 21 of the hangings had taken place. It was regularly reported that a guard would be seen at the top of the old metal staircase. In fact records show that even when the gaol was working, prisoners and guards alike often found it uncomfortable in that block made requests to be moved. I interviewed a guard who used to work there and he informed me that a couple of the guards refused to do night duty in that block as they could hear somebody patrolling the gantreys, when they were sitting in their office. Finally the Gaol was closed and the Adelaide Council were called in to clear it out. We tracked down a couple of the workers and found that after a few days they refused to go back into to the Gaol, 'A' Wing in particular. They were hearing footsteps, doors slamming and they were getting increasingly more uncomfortable. Eventually they had to bring contractors in to complete the clean up. And what about the electrician who was up a step ladder adding some party lights ready for people who had hired the block for an upcoming celebration. If you can imagine yourself at the top of the stepladder and you glance up through the bars to the second floor, only to find a face smiling back at you through those bars. The problem was … it WAS only a face, there was no body. He ended up back at the office and told them that if they want lights… they can **@&(@ do it themselves!! He was determined he wasn't going back in there again. There was also the work experience student whose first job was to go into 'A' Wing and put up the new government No Smoking signs. It wasn't long before he too, ended up back at the office shaking. He said he had seen a guard come out of the top offices and run down one of the gantries and into a cell before disappearing. He was told that if he wanted to work there, he had to get used to the guard as he was part of the Gaol.

Top of staircase where old Office is and where the Guard is witnessed.

And the list of stories went on. So 6 years ago we were invited to come in and officially start investigating the Old Adelaide Gaol. We thank management for this and for the trust they gave us right from the start. Eventually we went on to become volunteers at the gaol ended up taking some of the Ghost Tours for them.

Over the 6 years we were investigating, our ghost tours went from 1 hr and expanded gradually into over 2-3 hrs. This is because we accumulated so much new material the more we investigated. There is probably too much to put here, but when we release the website we will have expanded versions there.

I will also give a condensed version with photos in Part 2.