Details

Latitude

-34.503

Longitude

144.851

Start Date

1880

End Date

1974

In 1880 the Hay Gaol was moved from Lachlan Street to a new building in Church Street. It was mainly used to incarcerate short-term offenders from the surrounding districts. Low numbers of prisoners led to an ongoing struggle to keep the prison open, with a daily average of only 14 inmates in 1897. By 1915 the gaol had only 3 prisoners being supervised by a staff of 4. It was therefore closed that year. During the interwar period it was used as a hospital then maternity home, until over-crowding in the state's prisons led to its reopening as a gaol in 1930. In 1940 Hay Gaol again closed and was used as a prisoner-of-war and internment centre. After the war it was used as emergency public housing until 1961, when it became a maximum-security institution for girls aged 13 to 18 years, following wide scale rioting at the Parramatta Girls' Home earlier that year. The system at Hay was particularly harsh: girls were only allowed ten minutes twice a day to talk among themselves; they had to keep their eyes downcast at all times; had to keep at least six feet apart from each other at all times; raise their arms to talk to a staff member and await a response; and receive no schooling, instead put to work cleaning, cooking, scrubbing and painting walls, laying concrete paths, gardening and sewing. Those who misbehaved were put in an isolation block in the courtyard for a 24-hour period on bread and water. After negative media about the institution it closed in 1974. The gaol is now a museum and cultural centre.

Sources