Torchlight Prison Tour

Yesterday we went back to Fremantle and after sampling some fresh seafood for dinner we went to Fremantle Prison which sells itself as one of Western Australia's most fascinating and significant cultural attractions. Convicts first came to the Swan Valley in 1850 to help build the infrastructure for the Swan River Colony. They built lots of local road, bridges and government buildings but their first task was to construct the 'Convict Establishment' in which they would be held, Fremantle Prison. The impressive limestone building was completed in the late 1800's and was used as a maximum security prison all the way up to 1991.

We were going on a night-time 'torchlight tour' so were met by our guide, Matthew, at 7.45pm. He was an excellent guide and could really tell a good story, always handy on a spooky tour! We started off in the prisoner registration and processing area before turning on our torches, walking through the shower block and out into the main parade ground. From here you can see the hundreds of windows where over a thousand prisoners were once held. After a couple of stories we went into the first cell block. It is a really spooky feeling being inside, it was very dark and looking up there were 3 levels of thick doors, railings and netting. Matthew then told us a story about how a woman had been in there on her own one night and had looked up and seen the figure of a man standing on the very top balcony looking like he was screaming. She ran straight outside and through her tears told the tour guide what she had seen. The guide told her about a convict in the 1800's that couldn't take being in the prison any longer and had thrown himself off that very balcony. All the way through this story I was expecting something to jump out at us or a weird noise to make us jump but there was nothing. As Matthew finished his story I let my guard down just as he said "and if we all look up there" pointing his torch towards the top balcony. Just then there was a massive bang, a piercing scream and a body came tumbling down from the balcony. Obviously I almost crapped myself, screamed like a girl and shoved my head into Megan's shoulder! Looking back up I could clearly see that it was just a dummy but even though I had been expecting something all the way through I definitely wasn't ready for that! Luckily I wasn't the only one that jumped, Megan thought for a split second that someone had actually tripped and gone over the edge and the other 20 or so people in our group must have thought the same!

From then on we were slightly more on our guard and weren't quite as shocked (I still jumped and shouted) when a man jumped out of one of the solitary confinement cells we were being shown. These were tiny cells with 2 lots of doors, extra thick walls and only the tiniest holes as windows. Prisoners would spend 23 hours a day in here, alone.
We were then shown the gallows where 44 people were executed in the time that the prison was operating. This was quite weird to know that 44 lives were ended in that one small room. We also heard the last sound that each of those people would have ever heard, the trapdoor opening. A horrible noise.

It was about the gallows that we heard possibly the scariest, spookiest story of the night. It was a daytime tour and a mother was going round with a very young child in a pram. All the way round the baby had been screaming and crying, definitely not enjoying it. When they eventually got to the gallows she waited outside so as not to disrupt everyone and when most people had left the room she went in with the tour guide to have a quick look. On entering, the baby quietened down for the first time that day and as she pushed the pram right in the baby even started smiling. It reached its little hand up towards the rope with a hangman's noose on the end and still smiling said its first ever words. "Bye bye, Bye bye."

Now that is probably the spookiest, most weird, scary story I've heard in a long time. Made even spookier by it being told to us whilst sitting in a darkened chapel with only torchlight around the place! All in all it was a fantastic tour. It wasn't just scary stories but also interesting historical facts about the prison, the convicts and the general area. They do other tours during the day but I'm glad that as we were only going to do one tour, we did this one.