The Former Ballarat Gaol was one of the earliest constructions as part of the great gaol building programme which was a result of the report of the Select Committee on Prison Discipline of September 1857.

All prisons built in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 after 1851 adopted London's Pentonville Prison design of 1842, which carried on a revolution in prison design begun in 1829 by Eastern State Penitentiary

Eastern State Penitentiary

The Eastern State Penitentiary is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located on 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and was operational from 1829 until 1971...

 in Philadelphia. The complex was based on a central hall from which radiated wings of cells

Prison cell

A prison cell or holding cell or lock-up is a small room in a prison, or police station where a prisoner is held.Prison cells are usually about 6 by 8 feet in size with steel or brick walls and one solid or barred door that locks from the outside. Many modern prison cells are pre-cast. Solid doors...

. The principle of the design being that one guard would stand in the centre of the hall and at one glance survey all cells.

The construction of the gaol began in 1856 and the first cell blocks were completed by 1857. It was completed in 1862 with 58 cells designed to hold a mixture of 74 male and female prisoners

Convict

A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...

. In 1862 a tunnel was constructed to join the gaol to Ballarat Courthouse next door. This allowed for the safe transfer of prisoners.

Executions

Name	Year of birth	Date of execution	Crime
Alexander Davis		March 1, 1864	for the murder of George Sims near Smythesdale
James Jones		March 19, 1866	for the murder of Dr Saenger
Denis Murphy		April 16, 1867	for the murder of Patrick Mara.
George Searle		August 7, 1867	for the murder of Mr Burke
Joseph Ballam		August 7, 1867	for the murder of Mr Burke
John Wilson		May 11, 1867
James Johnston		May 18, 1891	for the murder of his wife and four children
Oscar Wallace		August 11, 1873
James Ashe	1839	August 21, 1875
Charles Baker		September 3, 1885	attempted murder of policeman
Cornelius Bourke	1818	November 21, 1891	for the murder of his cellmate in Hamilton Gaol.
Elijah Cockroft		November 12, 1894	for the murder of his sweetheart, Fanny Mott, at Noradjuha.(near Natimuk Natimuk, Victoria Natimuk is a town in Western Victoria, Australia. It is located about 300km northwest of Melbourne. A further 10km west of Natimuk is one of Australia's best climbing areas, Mount Arapiles. At the 2006 census, Natimuk had a population of 449.-History:... ).
Charles Henry Deutschmann		June 28, 1908	for the murder of his wife at Dobie (near Ararat Ararat, Victoria Ararat is a city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera... ).

Closure

The prison was closed in 1965.
Most of the gaol was demolished to allow the School of Mines Ballarat to expand onto the site. The remaining structures at the site include the main gate, warden's residence and governor's residence. These buildings are now used by the University of Ballarat

University of Ballarat

The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...

Ballarat Ghost Tours conducts nightly tours through the remaining facilities.

The site is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register

Victorian Heritage Register

The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...

.