Day 36: No Dobbing in this Household!

This morning, Greg had work to do, and Madi was going to a friend’s house to play, so it was just Mary and I.  We dropped off Madi at her friend’s, then headed into Fremantle, just south of Perth, to go to the Fremantle Prison.  The prison was built in the 1850s by convicts brought from England, and was used as a prison until 1991.  We took an hour and a half tour around the prison, which was quite interesting.  We had a funny tour guide, who showed us around the different sections of the prison.  The entire complex housed 1000 men, with a small women’s prison.  There was also a children’s division, whose youngest detainee was nine years old.

The entrance to the Fremantle Prison

Prisoner art; we were quite impressed by the quality of the art.

The main building of the prison.

The cells in which the prisoners stayed were very small, and certainly could not hold two inmates.  The yards were separated by severity of crime, so they too were fairly small.  We also saw the chapel, which was a fully functioning church, and just as well decorated.  The cells in one row were set up to show how the inmates lived in different periods.  For most of the 19th century, the inmates did not even have beds, but rather hammocks, in which to sleep.  Each prisoner also had a bucket in which to use the bathroom, all the way up until the prison closed.  They only got to clean it once per day.  Finally, we saw solitary confinement and then the gallows.  The gallows were used until the late 1960s, when capital punishment was outlawed in Australia.  The craziest part of the gallows was that the floor below the trapdoor was a full ten feet down, giving someone a long way to fall.

A view from the yard in the back.

A cell in the 19th century.

The main cell block.

The tour was very neat and a bit freaky.  When we finished, we went down by the river for a true Australian lunch of fish and chips.  It was pretty good, even if they only had tomato sauce instead of ketchup.  We then walked through Fremantle to check out some of the shops.  The coolest part of that was the buildings.  Almost all of the buildings are from the early twentieth century, and still look great.  One street had a photo of what it looked like in 1911, and the street today still looks much the same.

Finally, it was time to pick up Madi and head back.  At her friend’s house, Mary and I spoke with her mom for a few minutes, and I explained how living on campus works in the American university system–how I would do laundry, and how I would eat.  In Australia, almost all students live at home while attending university.  On the way home, the radio hosts were asking listeners to call in and explain how they deal with “dobbing” in their household.  What are the ramifications for “dobbers” and “dobbies.”  Some parents said they only allowed “dobbing” in serious situations, while others disallowed it completely.  Had Mary not explained what “dobbing” was, it would have taken quite a bit of context to figure out that “dobbing” is tattle-tailing.