DESCRIPTION
Unshackled – Hobart Penitentiary is the full site experience in one ticket:
* Tour the historic site: a guided tour of one of Australia’s richest convict sites, wrought by convict labour for convicts, moving through underground tunnels, solitary cells, the prison exercise yard, courtrooms, and the Gallows.
* Explore the Convict Memorial: a digital history experience allowing visitors to trace the lives of each of the 75,000 convicts transported to Tasmania between 1803 and 1853.
* See Pandemonium: a dynamic widescreen film of Tasmania’s convict years, screened on the very walls of the prison chapel as you sit where the convicts received their mandatory religious instruction.
* View The Rogues’ Gallery: a series of moving portraits of colourful convict characters
The Hobart Penitentiary began in 1821 as the Hobart Prison Barracks, built as accommodation for convicts employed in Government public works. In 1834 the surviving Penitentiary Chapel was completed.
75,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen’s Land between 1803 and 1853. Of these 62,500 were male convicts. After 1821 all male convicts were processed here before being given labour assignments across the island.
In 1857, 1860 convicts still under sentence were employed in converting two wings of the former Penitentiary Chapel as courtrooms. One wing remained as the prison chapel for the Penitentiary, then known as the Hobart Gaol. The Hobart Town gallows were relocated to the site with thirty-two people executed at the site 1857 – 1946. Some 300 to 400 men had been executed at the gallows on their original site in central Hobart. The Gaol was demolished in 1963 while the courts remained at the site until 1983.
Bookings are strongly recommended as group sizes are kept to a minimum.
UNSHACKLED TOUR TIMES
Wednesday to Sunday
Morning: 10:00am | 11:30am
Afternoon: 1:00pm | 2:30pm
Additional Summer hours – Please see the booking calendar for availability.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
– Disabled access is very limited due to the historic nature of the building:
There are steep and narrow stairs to tunnels and uneven sandstone floors plus plenty of steps throughout the site.
Please get in touch with us directly on (03) 6231 0911 so that we can discuss options!
– Pandemonium is exempt from classification, however, it does feature some graphic historical content and it is recommended that parents / guardians enquire about the Pandemonium experience’s specific content, before deciding whether the material is suitable for their child.
