ADELAIDE GAOL TRAIL Student activity booklet

AN EXPLANATION FOR TEACHERS (Omit this explanation when copying the activity booklet for students)

Purpose of this activity booklet This booklet has been developed to support self-guided education programs at the Adelaide Gaol. Its primary purpose is to enhance the educational value of school visits by providing activities that focus on students’ interests, observation skills and interpretation of the Gaol’s buildings, structures and history.

Some background information The activities in this booklet are broadly aimed at students in the Middle Years of schooling, but can be adapted for other age groups. No specific curriculum links have been identified – it is expected that teachers will link (and adapt) the content and activities to their purpose and educational programs. Constructivist learning theory and the SACSA Framework, with its Essential Learnings, Key Ideas and Competencies, have influenced the style of questions and activities included in the booklet.

Students are encouraged to make connections and to give personal or group meaning to what they see; provided with opportunities to develop and use basic computational and language skills

(including recording, summarising and note-taking) as well as critical thinking skills such as analysing and interpreting information;

introduced to concepts such as chronology, change and progress, design and functionality and heritage and conservation; and

challenged to deduce, compare, observe and explore evidence to form conclusions.

The activities included in this booklet also consider individual learning styles, with questions requiring a variety of tasks, such as reading and comprehension, sketching, noting, discussion, etc.

How to use this booklet This student guide assumes some prior understanding and knowledge of the history, layout, significance and specific vocabulary associated with Adelaide Gaol. It is strongly recommended that classes visiting the site have undertaken appropriate learning activities before their visit (refer to Adelaide Gaol Education Sheet: Pre-visit Information & Activities). The ADELAIDE GAOL TRAIL: student activity booklet can be used as a stand-alone approach for classes visiting the Gaol, or teachers may opt to use elements of this booklet combined with their own use of the ADELAIDE GAOL TRAIL: a guide for teachers. The activity booklet is presented according to the main areas of the Gaol, and follows the recommended visitor path, beginning at the front entrance.

It is preferred that classes visiting the Gaol move from area to area together, although within each of the areas students should explore individually or in small groups to complete the activities for that section. (If two classes visit the Gaol together, then a recommended starting and end point for the second class is Four Yard). Teachers are invited to use this activity booklet in any way that suits their purpose – mix and match activities, edit the pages, add ideas of your own, produce a new booklet using just some of these activities, divide the pages (or activities) between student groups, etc. Note that there is an interactive exhibition, Time Inside, located in the Remand Centre (shown as point No. 11 on the map). This exhibition covers general themes of Gaol life, work, punishment and escape. The exhibition can be a ‘time-stealer’, so if your visit to the Gaol is limited, you may need to limit how much time students spend in this area. For this reason, activity pages for this section are not included within the main activity booklet. However, they have been developed and attached at the end of the booklet for classes wanting to use them. Alternatively, teachers may opt to forgo written activities in most areas of the Gaol (instead using the Teacher Guide as a main resource) with only the ‘Time Inside’ sheets photocopied and used during the visit. The ‘Short-Term Inmates: Mugshots’ page is a possible cover for the activity booklet. It has been designed for groups of four students working together (i.e. saving paper and sharing one booklet between four), but can easily be adapted for more or less faces. The idea behind this page is for students to draw their own ‘mugshot’ on the cover before ‘entering’ Gaol (i.e. at school). This page can easily be omitted, replaced or adapted. The blank pages have been deliberately inserted to enhance two-sided photocopying.

Pre-visit preparation

PRIOR LEARNING As already mentioned, there is an assumption that students have some knowledge of the site and its history prior to their Adelaide Gaol visit. Adelaide Gaol Education Sheet: Pre-visit Information & Activities provides some guidance. EXPECTATIONS AND BEHAVIOUR –SAFETY AND SUPERVISION The Adelaide Gaol is a large site. It is important for the safety and welfare of the students and also for the protection of this significant heritage site and the enjoyment of other visitors, that classes remain under strict supervision at all times. It is preferred that classes visiting the Adelaide Gaol remain together when moving from one main location to another. However, within each section/yard, students can investigate in pre-arranged groups or individually, while supervised by the teacher and accompanying adults. Prior to the Adelaide Gaol visit, please discuss appropriate behaviour with students and agree about group rules and expectations (and appropriate consequences).

A visit to the Adelaide Gaol deserves a minimum of two hours. This guide assumes that teachers have allowed at least that amount of time on-site.

ADELAIDE GAOL

SHORT-TERM INMATES

MUGSHOTS

NAME:

NAME:

NAME:

NAME:

ENTRY & RELEASE DATE

_________________________________

ront of Gaol

WELCOME to Adelaide Gaol. More than 300,000 prisoners were held here during the 147 years that the Gaol operated (from 1841 to 1988).

Many of these inmates were thieves, robbers, drunks or guilty of assault, but a

few were simply protesting about a war or refused to pay their fines. There were both male and female prisoners here and even a few children in earliest times.

Prisoners usually served their time and were released, but 44 men and one woman were hanged at Adelaide Gaol and their bodies are buried inside.

LOOK AROUND. WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE THAT:

THIS BUILDING IS A GAOL? THE GAOL OPERATED FOR OVER 100 YEARS?

HIGH WALLS:

________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________

OLDER FEATURES: __________________________________ __________________________________ MODERN FEATURES: __________________________________ __________________________________

How do you think a prisoner felt arriving at this building and seeing those large double doors for the first time?

DECORATIVE FACES: Look at the faces on each side of the main doors. These decorations on buildings are known as grotesques. Keep your eyes open for more during your visit to the Gaol.

Sketch one of these grotesques

F A

Look at the sign by the visitor entry door. Note the 1843 sketch of the Gaol, with only part of the construction completed. Compare it with today.

ally Port

This ‘tunnel-like’ area was the Gaol’s main entry point for both people and vehicles. It was a very secure place because only one set of doors (or gates) was

opened at a time.

The building above and around the Sally Port was the home of the Gaol’s Governor and Headkeeper.

The small guard room was installed in the 1970s.

From the 1840s until the 1960s all visitors stopped in the Sally Port and spoke

with the prisoners through the metal gates.

EXPERIENCE ‘VISITING TIME’ AT ADELAIDE GAOL A Class Activity Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students. Choose one person to be the PRISONER and the other 2-3 students are the VISITORS.

Send each PRISONER to stand in the Gaol yard, behind the metal gates.

In the Sally Port locate the ring (on the left wall) that shows where a brass bar was hung at visiting times. Imagine this bar in place and have the VISITORS stand behind it.

OK – ‘visitors’ talk with your ‘prisoner’. Remember that family or friends probably hadn’t seen the prisoner for a while and would have had a lot of news to share and questions to ask – some of it private information and possibly even a few arguments! (If you’re not sure what to talk about to keep a conversation going,

try sharing information about what you did on the weekend, or explain your favourite TV show, or talk about which is the best footy team!)

Record observations and impressions of this experience – comment about noise, concentration, privacy etc. Think about how families (husbands and wives or mothers/fathers and

children) might feel meeting this way.

S B

Move into the open area where the ‘prisoners’ were standing

ircle

IMAGINE THAT THE BROWN BUILDING IS NOT HERE

This area is known as the Circle – check it out on your Gaol plan to see how it is shaped like a semi-circle. It was the entry and exit point for all the yards and so

was a very busy part of the Gaol.

The size and shape of this area enabled wagons and other vehicles to turn around after they came through the Sally Port to drop off prisoners or supplies.

LOOK AT THE COLOURED PHOTO & CAPTION ON THE MAIN SIGN

Stand so that you can see both the photo and the main building today. Discuss what has changed and what is the same. (Consider additions and parts that

have been removed, painted and natural stonework and the surrounding area.)

Record one change:

___________________________________________________________

Record one thing the same:

___________________________________________________________

The BELL was part of the daily life of the Gaol. List three reasons it was rung.

__________________ ____________________ ___________________

NOW LOOK AT THE BROWN BUILDING

From the early 1960s prisoners met their visitors here instead of at the Sally Port.

REPEAT THE ‘VISITING’ ACTIVITY FROM THE SALLY PORT. ‘Visitors’ sit on the entry side of the windows and ‘prisoners’ sit around the other side as though they have come from the yards.

How does this ‘visit’ compare with the one in the Sally Port? (Record two thoughts)

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

As you walk to Two Yard go into the Surgery / Medical Office.

C C

wo Yard

This yard was constructed in 1849 and was for women prisoners only until 1969, when all females were moved to another site north of Adelaide.

Read the sign about HONEYCOMB BRICKS (near the entrance to this yard). As you walk around the rest of the Gaol keep your eyes open for some of the other ways that prisoners were stopped from climbing walls.

Come back to this page and tick the box when you see:

Broken glass on tops of walls Barbed wire Razor wire Security cameras Rounded corners where a building and wall meet

THREE-STOREY BUILDING

Locate the large hook on the end of the building. Suggest a reason why this hook is there: ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________

Test your maths skills:

Each cell held one person, so how many women were housed in this building? (Have you noticed that the building faces into One Yard as well as this Yard, and that each side is symmetrical?) ANSWER: ______________________

READ THE LARGE SIGN AT THE END OF THE YARD:

Why was Sarah Francisco one of Adelaide Gaol’s most interesting characters?

_____________________________________________________________________ Matron Messner introduced many changes to the women’s yards. Which one would you have wanted most if you were in Gaol in the 1960s? Why?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________ Describe a chore connected with daily life in the Gaol.

_____________________________________________________________________ Describe a chore to bring money into the Gaol.

_____________________________________________________________________

T D

Move through the Activity Room to Three Yard

hree Yard

From 1849-1969 this yard was for female prisoners. It contained the early Gaol kitchen, a brick bath-house and a dining room. A garden was planted in

this yard in the 1930s and a modern dormitory building was installed in the 1960s.

After Adelaide Gaol became an all-male facility, this yard changed to include areas for recreation and education as well as the Gaol’s induction centre.

Look at the display in the 1849 KITCHEN and record an interesting

fact about female prisoners at Adelaide Gaol.

___________________________________________________________

WASTE DISPOSAL UNIT

Why was it necessary to have one of these units in each Yard?

___________________________________________________________

Look at this system from all sides and consider its main features. Use a diagram and labels to explain how you think it worked.

INDUCTION CENTRE

In the 1980s this was the first place new prisoners were brought. Look around and think about how these prisoners felt while they were in this building. Now sit down and record FIVE words that might describe the prisoners’ emotions. (Consider – are you a first time prisoner or returning? Is it winter or summer?

Have you arrived on your own or with a group?)

You wouldn’t expect a ROSE GARDEN inside a Gaol. Why is it here?

T E

Be careful – don’t touch or smell the flowers in case it is bee season!

our Yard

This is one of the first yards built in 1841 and the two single-storey buildings are from that time. The white building was used as a canteen before the Gaol

closed. Prisoners could only spend money that they earned working in the Gaol.

This yard also contains some of the Gaol’s ‘condemned cells’ and provides you with a good view of the central observation tower.

Look at the CANTEEN DISPLAY that shows the types of goods sold in Adelaide Gaol at about the time it closed in 1988.

From your observations complete the following:

Prisoners could buy luxury items such as ______________ and _____________,

snacks and food such as _______________ and _________________, or drinks

such as ___________________ and ____________________. They could also buy items for hobbies, such as ___________________ and __________________.

Prisoners were allowed to keep a budgie! Read the information on the wall (left of

display window) and record two key facts about keeping budgies in Gaol.

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Read “Escape from Four Yard” on the sign at the end of the yard. Retell the story as a comic strip, perhaps using stick figures for the characters. Only tell the story of the escape from the yard (not the recapture).

Consider – who are the main characters; what are the main activities or events?

1 Sunday – only 13 prisoners in 4 Yard

2 3

4

5 6

F

You don’t have to use all 6

boxes

To reach 5/6 Yard & the Remand Cell Block go through the exhibition space. (Check your map) Teachers: choose to just enjoy the displays or use the activity sheets at the back of this booklet.

f

ive/Six Yard

This yard was one of the first two yards built at Adelaide Gaol in 1841. For some years during the Gaol’s history there was a brick wall dividing it into two

separate areas known as Five Yard and Six Yard.

This yard has mainly been used for prisoners on remand.

Read the large sign in this yard to gain some understanding of the differences between a remand prisoner and other inmates.

Sit in the yard for a while and think about daily life for remandees in this crowded area – mostly just waiting for their court appearance to determine if they could be released or not. How different might they feel if they were actually innocent?

Write down some thoughts or observations in the space below. At school use these notes to write an “Interview with a Remandee”.

emand Block

This cell block was the first one constructed at Adelaide Gaol with the cells opening into a corridor inside the building.

After the Gaol closed, volunteer guides at the Gaol used some of the cells in this building for ‘Bed & Breakfast’ accommodation for tourists. Imagine choosing to

sleep overnight in these cells!

Look around and go into any cells that are open. Make notes about two interesting things you see or read or think or feel.

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

F

R

G1

Move through the Remand Block and to the ‘Between Walls’ area

G2

he Towers

As you leave the Remand Centre building you are in the area of the Gaol known as ‘Between Walls’ or ‘the sterile zone’. Prisoners were generally

forbidden to be in this area.

The two towers were built as part of the first stage of the Gaol in 1841. There were meant to be more of these guard towers along the outer wall, but they were

too expensive and only these two were actually built.

COMPARE THE TOWERS

Only the tower on the right was completed to the original design. What is the extra feature on this tower? Sketch it below.

MORE GROTESQUES – add them up!

You’ve now found the rest of these sculpted faces (on both towers). How many grotesques there are at Adelaide Gaol.

HINT: How many windows on a tower? How many faces per window? How many towers? (don’t forget the ones at the front doors)

ANSWER: ______________________________

‘EXECUTIONS AT ADELAIDE GAOL’

Read this large sign between the two towers and sort the information to give data about people hanged in South Australia.

Total no. of people legally hanged in SA _____________

Total no. of people hanged at Adelaide Gaol _____________

outside the gates ____________

on the portable gallows ‘between walls’ ____________

in the New Building ____________

in the Hanging Tower ____________

When was the law changed to stop hangings in SA? _____________

When was the last person hanged in SA? _____________

‘HANGING TOWER’

Quietly look around the Hanging Tower and record some of your observations, thoughts and feelings about this area.

T

This tower was not originally designed for hangings but was changed in the 1950s. Four men were hanged here between 1953 and 1964.

H

emetery

By law, people who were hanged at Adelaide Gaol were buried on the Gaol property. Eleven of the earliest burial sites are not known and seven graves are

located outside the New Building, but most of the burials took place here ‘between walls’. Twenty-seven graves are known to be located in this area.

READ THE LARGE SIGN ‘ADELAIDE GAOL CEMETERY’. If you were an Adelaide Gaol history volunteer, what answers would you give if you were asked the following questions during a visit to the gaol? Remember a

volunteer would not answer with just a yes or no, but would offer visitors an explanation.

Why are these graves inside the Gaol? ________________________

__________________________________________________________

Were people buried here if they died at the Gaol because of illness?

__________________________________________________________

Who dug the graves? _______________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Why are there no headstones or markers on the graves?

__________________________________________________________

As you walk past the graves look for:

Grave No.5 – who is it (initials)? _______ What date? ____________

Elizabeth Woolcock’s grave – what number is it? ________________

The first marked grave – of John Seavers

The grave of the last person hanged in South Australia (Glen Sabre Valance) – what number? _______ (the top number is not accurate – the official

number is actually underneath in ink which is more faint)

C I

Continue walking along the ‘Between Walls’ area and note the site of the PORTABLE GALLOWS where 13 people were hanged.

Read the sign to learn about the public hangings at the front of the Gaol and about some of the people who were hanged at this site

Keep walking and you’ll come to a part of the Gaol known as

The Laneway

he Laneway

This lane, with buildings on each side, was the main work area at Adelaide Gaol.

Some of the jobs were necessary for daily life in the Gaol but some of the work areas, including the laundry and the bakery, also brought money into the Gaol.

READ THE LARGE SIGN NEAR THE LAUNDRY

Summarise the main types of work done in Adelaide Gaol.

WORK IN THE 1850s to 1880s

WORK IN THE 1950s to 1980s

In your lists draw a line under any work that was done away from the Gaol. Now put a circle around any work that brought money to the Gaol.

Read the story about smuggling contraband (‘Laundry & Boiler Room’)

If you had been in Gaol for a while and a friend could smuggle something to you with the nappies, what would you ask for? Why did you choose this item and what use would it be to you while you were in Gaol?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

CHECK THIS LOCATION ON YOUR GAOL MAP.

You have now seen most of the early section of Adelaide Gaol (originally

built 1841-1849) and are nearly back at your entry point – the Sally Port.

DON’T GO TO THE SALLY PORT though, because you still need to see the section of the Gaol known as the NEW BUILDING. Look for the narrow passageway that leads to this area (on the right) and follow it

to the New Building.

T J

ew Building

This building was completed more than one hundred years ago but is still known as the New Building because no other large buildings were added to

Adelaide Gaol after that time.

This was the largest cell block at Adelaide Gaol and housed 100 prisoners.

LOOK AROUND THE NEW BUILDING.

Read the large sign at the entry and any smaller signs inside. Go into any cells that are open, sit on bunks, look at any artwork or graffiti, note the prisoners’ daily routine, look up, look down and generally get a feel for this area and what it was like for the prisoners who were here.

Take note of ‘A’ Wing with the gallows and the observation cells. Find the screen (in ‘C’ Wing) that was used for Saturday film nights. Explore the exercise yard where prisoners spent a large part of each day. Now sit quietly somewhere (e.g. on the steps leading up to the building’s second level). IMAGINE life in this building. Think about the differences between the first years the building was open (from 1879) and the last years it was used (up to 1988).

Record words, phrases, sentences and sketches to help you remember what you have seen and how you are feeling.

Back at school use these thoughts and drawings to write and illustrate a poem, a descriptive passage, or a creative story.

N K

ime Inside an exhibition about life in Gaol (located in the Remand Centre)

FIRST ROUND DISPLAY

‘DOING TIME’ PANEL:

Look at the mugshots (glass negatives) of prisoners in the early 1900s. Notice the men’s jacket in each photo? It looks the same? Suggest an explanation for this:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

‘CONTRABAND’ PANEL:

What is the meaning of ‘contraband’? ____________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________ List two ways that prisoners could get contraband items:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________ Now list some types of contraband found on prisoners:

_________________________________ ________________________________

_________________________________ ________________________________

‘WORK’ PANEL:

Under the appropriate heading below note some of the chores / tasks / jobs done by prisoners at Adelaide Gaol.

MALE ONLY FEMALE ONLY BOTH MALE AND FEMALE

T

SECOND ROUND DISPLAY

This display section is about PUNISHMENT – both the sentences given to people who are convicted of crimes and also punishments given within the Gaol for poor behaviour.

Once you’ve looked at the panels on this display explain the difference between CAPITAL and CORPORAL punishment.

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

‘EXECUTIONS’ PANEL:

Explain the effect of the new law, passed in 1976, that abolished hanging in South Australia.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

‘CORPORAL PUNISHMENT’ PANEL

How old are you? ___________

If you had committed a crime leading to corporal punishment would you have been whipped or birched? _____________________

Describe how this was done: __________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Study the whipping frame leaning against the wall and discuss how it was used. Find the belt (on display) that protected the prisoner’s kidneys.

‘THE VISITING JUSTICE’ PANEL:

What types of activities or behaviours led to prisoners being punished while they were in Gaol?

_______________________________ ________________________________

_______________________________ ________________________________ What were some of the punishments for misbehaviour in Gaol?

_______________________________ ________________________________

_______________________________ ________________________________

THIRD ROUND DISPLAY

This display section is about keeping prisoners inside the Gaol and their cells, and about the clever ways that prisoners tried to escape.

‘ESCAPES’ PANEL

Look at the large 1970s aerial photo of Adelaide Gaol.

Check out the parts of the Gaol you have already visited and those you are still to see. Compare the photo with your map of the Gaol.

Note: The building you’re in now The five yards that form this part of the Gaol The space between the main Gaol and the outer wall The two (old stone) towers The new tower above the Circle The Gaol layout with the ‘New Building’ added onto the original design The painted path between the Gaol yards and the outside wall The stacks of loose bricks on top of walls

Write a paragraph (at least three sentences) about something on this display section that you find interesting – perhaps an escape attempt, or the methods used to keep prisoners in, or a description of wearing a manacle around your ankle, or anything else you discovered.

A sketch might add to your explanation