Newcastle Gaol (Toodyay): prison profile
WA | Decommissioned | Australian Prison Directory
Source-linked profile checked 11 November 2026. Dates and capacities below describe the stated source period, not necessarily today’s available beds or prisoner population.
About this facility
A convict-built gaol designed by Richard Roach Jewell in the town then called Newcastle. It replaced earlier local lockups. The stone gaol has a courtyard and former cells behind the front accommodation block. After closure it became a residence and later a museum within a wider law-and-order heritage precinct.
Classification: Historical gaol; modern security classification not assigned retrospectively
Contact details
Address: 13 Clinton Street, Toodyay WA
Address note: Current museum visitor address. The heritage-group record lists 12 Clinton Street, encompassing a precinct across the road.
Toodyay visitor centre telephone for museum enquiries: 08 9574 9380
Toodyay visitor centre email for museum enquiries: visitorscentre@toodyay.wa.gov.au
Opening, closure and history
Opening: 1865 — Opened and operational as Newcastle lockup/gaol; construction accounts also mention 1864 completion
Closing: 1907 — Gaol closed and was replaced by the separate 1907 lockup
1907: Separate replacement lockup opened for short-term detention
1962-10-07: Old Gaol Museum opened
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
Newcastle Gaol in Toodyay, in its later museum use, 2014. Photo: Orderinchaos, CC BY-SA 3.0. Reproduced without cropping or substantive editing; the photograph does not establish current conditions.
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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