Hobart Town Gaol (Murray Street): prison profile
TAS | Decommissioned | Australian Prison Directory
Source-linked profile checked 2026-11-12. Dates and capacities below describe the stated source period, not necessarily today’s available beds or prisoner population.
About this facility
Early Hobart gaol for people awaiting trial and offenders convicted in the colony. This was a separate institution from the Campbell Street convict barracks. In 1857 it closed and was demolished, with women transferred to Cascades and men to Campbell Street. Its adjoining female-factory annexe is recorded separately.
Classification: Historic gaol; no modern security category assigned retrospectively.
Old Murray Street gaol, not Campbell Street Gaol and not the smaller adjoining Hobart Town Female Factory. Distinct institutions are cross-linked, not treated as aliases.
Contact details
Address: Former gaol site on Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania; exact current parcel boundary not verified
No current dedicated contact verified.
No dedicated current heritage-site contact verified.
1816 is a construction/establishment marker, not a verified opening ceremony or first-reception day.
Opening, closure and history
Opening: 1816 — Gaol construction year stated by the Tasmanian Heritage Register; exact first prisoner reception unverified
Closing: 1857 — Gaol closed and demolished; prisoners moved to Cascades and Campbell Street
Capacity
Capacity has not yet been independently verified.
Deaths in custody: totals and limitations
No complete facility-level series is established here for suicide, medical or natural causes, homicide, other causes, Aboriginal deaths or combined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths. Missing data does not mean zero deaths. Selected cases below, where available, are not lifetime or reporting-period totals. “Murder” is a legal conclusion and is not substituted for a source’s classification.
Photograph
No verified licensed photograph is installed in this profile. No stock or generated image is presented as a photograph of this prison.
Sources
Using this profile
Confirm visiting arrangements and current contacts with the corrections department or heritage operator. Heritage visitor contacts are not operational prison contacts. General information only, not legal advice.
This directory includes prison complexes and components and is not a complete Australian operational or historical census. Component capacities must not be added to their parent complex a second time.
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