Being lucky enough to be rewarded with ownership of a virtual cache, I thought it fitting I choose a prison with my history working for corrections that spans more than twenty years.
The Adelaide Gaol is an iconic landmark is one of South Australia's earliest public buildings and one of Australia's longest continuously operating prisons. From March 1841 to February 1988 Adelaide Gaol housed approximately 300,000 prisoners. It was also the main site for executions in South Australia with 44 men and one woman hanged here. The bodies of all executed prisoners are buried within the grounds.
When South Australia was settled in 1836 it was Australia's first colony established without convict labour. The free settlers were assumed to be of a purer character than those in other colonies and the original plans for Adelaide did not consider a gaol. That optimism was short-lived however and it was soon obvious that not everyone was a law-abiding citizen.
The first wrong-doers were kept in irons aboard the HMS Buffalo until it sailed in June 1837 and the Government was forced to consider a secure lockup on shore. A tent and then a wooden stockade were used until 1839 when it was evident that a permanent gaol was needed. Colonial Architect, George Strickland Kingston, designed a radial plan for Adelaide Gaol with five yards and four observation towers.
While the gaol was being built changes were made to the size and quality of the Keepers' Residence and the first two towers. These alterations significantly increased the costs and when the first prisoners were relocated from the stockade in I841 only half of the original design had been completed. It was another eight years before construction began on the remaining and less lavish yards and buildings.
In 1879 a new building and yard, which deviated from Kingston's radial plan, was added to the Gaol. The New Building, as it is still known today, was the last major change to the Gaol for nearly 80 years. From the late 1950s a number of alterations and additions attempted to cope with the problems of overcrowding and poor living conditions, but essentially the character of the Gaol rem/lined as it had been since the 1880s.
Adelaide Gaol inmates included convicted murderers, armed robbers, embezzlers and thieves as well as debtors, drunks, lunatics and a few children. During World War Two military prisoners and
'enemy aliens were held at the Gaol and during the Vietnam War protesters and draft resisters spent time in the cells. The facility accommodated women prisoners until |969 and was Adelaide's remand centre until 1987.
At GZ you are standing in front of the sallyport doors. A sally port is a secure, controlled entry way into the prison proper, consisting of two sets of parallel doors with a void or secure space in between. These doors are open independently with the inner doors remaining closed while the outer ones are opened, to let in vehicles or foot traffic. Once inside the sally port area the outer doors close creating a secure space for inspections to take place before allowing passage into the prison proper.
To log this virtual cache please take a photo (no distinguishing features required of yourself), but please include either your GPSr or something with your geocaching name on it to prove you were there. The photo must include either the front outer sallyport doors or somewhere inside or around the prison proper with a distinguishing feature, like the tower where prisoners were hung, or the rear grounds there where were buried for example. Please note, no fee is required to stand at GZ and log this cache, however, should you choose to go inside the prison walls please be aware there is an entry fee to do so.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.