Locks will come off the Old Ballarat Gaol

IMMERSE yourself in the city’s criminal history as the Old Ballarat Gaol opens its doors for the Ballarat Heritage Festival.

Join a guided tour at the Lydiard Street site, now part of Federation University.

Uncover the history of the former gaol and discover the artefacts, blueprints and images of Ballarat’s criminal underworld as curated by the university’s post graduate history program.

The Ballarat gaol was completed in 1862 with 58 cells and closed in 1965 to allow the School of Mines (SMB) to expand its facilities.

Thirteen prisoners were executed within the prison walls, the most in regional Victoria.

This year’s tours will be led by Federation University’s senior lecturer in History, Dr David Waldron, and will focus on diseases and the effects the spread of ailments such a typhus and syphilis had on the inmates and prison community – poignant after two years of the COVID pandemic.

Artefacts, sourced from Old Melbourne Gaol, Old Geelong Gaol, Sovereign Hill and the Federation University historical collection, will include a replica of infamous bushranger Captain Moonlite’s death mask.

“Have a glimpse into Ballarat’s darker past,” Dr Waldron said.

“It’s so important to our local heritage to see the social and cultural consequences of incarceration and policing in Ballarat’s history.

“It’s also important to see what’s become of the site today, part of Federation University and part of our contemporary history.”

Ballarat Old Goal Tours are at 107 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat Central on Saturday, 28 and Sunday, 29 May between 10am and 5pm

The tours are free but bookings essential. Visit ballaratheritagefestival.com.au to lock up your ticket.

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