Fannie Bay Gaol in Darwin

I found this old post from Darwin that I guess I hadn't finished…

I can’t remember how we heard about the Fannie Bay Gaol while we were in Darwin, but we decided it would be good to go have a look.  Entry is by donation so it’s an affordable family attraction.  We thought it would be good for the kids to go inside the prison cells and learn a little about prison life.  This is probably one of those places that people who live in Darwin have never visited!


Isn’t the Northern Territory flag pretty?  The white flower has seven petals representing Australia’s six states plus one for the NT.


When you arrive the first building you see is the visitors’ building, where prisoners could meet with their visitors.  I wonder how old this sign is?


Then we were off to the minimum security section.  It was a series of large cells with see-through walls.  Inmates could see and hear each other.


There was an old toilet and sink in each cell.  You can just see the short privacy wall behind JitterBug (who has his prisoner face on).  The kids were very concerned about the lack of privacy.


You can see in this cell there were some old beds set up.  Some even had old mattresses filled with straw and we wondered what it would have been like to sleep on them.  Softer than the floor at least.  I caught one child laying on one as soon as my back was turned.  Just had to try it out.  I won’t say which one, but if you know them then you know who it was!


The infirmary building also held the gallows.  Two people were hung on these gallows, there were other hangings at the prison but they had all been done on temporary gallows erected for the occasion.  It was a bit spooky seeing the gallows and the trapdoor open beneath.  There was an information sign nearby that talked about what a job it had been digging out the ground for that trapdoor.  Australia has now abolished capital punishment, with the last execution taking place in 1967.


Next we found the ablution block.  Before they had this they would take the prisoners down to the sea for a wash.  The prison is very close to the coast.  Apparently someone escaped during one of these trips to the ocean, so a separate building on site was built.


Here they are having their showers!


Then we found the separate confinement building.  Not the same as solitary, there were two cells right next to each other and you could hear anything that went on outside.  It was meant for prisoners who might have been a harm to themselves or others.  It was hot the day we were there, it would have been unbearable in some of these prison cells.  LadyBug (5) enjoyed locking us in the cell, this was the view through the small window in the door.


JitterBug (8) was trying to bend down next to TurboBug (2) for a picture but TurboBug thought that meant he should bend down too.


There’s JitterBug’s prison face again.


It looks like they must have had their own outdoor yard, but the recreation area was right in front of this.  So I guess they could watch or hear what was going on but not participate.


The recreation area was just an open grassy area, but the sign says the guards used to play ball games with the prisoners.  Wouldn’t happen these days!


This was the muster area, I suppose the numbered squares were to line everyone up for a head count.


Then we were off to the maximum security building.  See the signs on the wall in the background?  Some of the cells had information about the history of the police in the Northern Territory.  The signs looked dated, it seems like they are trying to expand their exhibits.


Then we all took turns locking each other in.  Not all the cell doors closed properly, but many did.


Look how skinny these doors are!  Each cell had a solid door and a mesh door behind it.  Not really made of mesh, but wire like the picture above.


There were various displays of prisoner’s art and documents from the prison.  It was all very nicely done.


We made a quick stop in the children’s prison, they were of course kept separate from the adults.  I considered leaving some of mine behind, but in the end we let them out of their cells.  ;)


Next was the women’s prison.  The kids all wanted to know why this one had shade!  Who knows what it looked like when the prison was operational.


Us women were locked in for a short time.  It was interesting to see that the women had much more privacy for their showers.


The laundry building was blown away during Cyclone Tracy in 1974.  After hearing about some of the other damage during the cyclone, I’m amazed the prison didn’t suffer more damage.


This is right outside the gates.  See how close the ocean is? 


And that’s our history lesson for the day!

Overnight in Timber Creek: Croc Feeding!

Another of those whirly winds we often see as we are driving.  They come and go quickly, often whirling themselves out of existence in seconds.

As we moved west we started seeing a more varied landscape.  Goodbye flat outback, hello mountain ranges!  We have seen so much scenery that reminds us of southern Utah or Arizona.

Our last night in the Northern Territory was spent in Timber Creek.  We wanted a place with a pool so we could have a swim but this caravan park also has a croc & kite feeding every evening.  What a fabulous way to draw in travellers!  The creek at the back of the property (I’m assuming the creek was Timber Creek) was home to a dozen or so freshwater crocodiles.  We got to watch while an employee of the park fed the crocodiles from a bridge, even getting them to jump a bit.

It was very nerve-wracking being on this bridge with a toddler.  The railings were too far apart, nothing to stop a small child from falling in.  And of course he was not willing to be held the whole time so we had to kneel down with him and have an arm around him or hang onto his shorts.  [What’s really scary is that we snuck away from the kids that night and came down to the creek with a torch to look for glowing crocodile eyes…well, we thought we’d snuck away but he came after us and caught up with us on that bridge.  In the dark.  Yikes!]

I’ve looked back through my pictures and really don’t have any good ones of them jumping.  She held the meat out on a hook dangling from a pole.  I was wondering how the crocs don’t hurt themselves on the hook but it had just enough give on it that they could get the meat off without injuring themselves.

Quit growing up, kid.  His hair is a mess because it’s way too long he’d been in the pool.

There were a couple of bigger ones, most were small.  She said not all of them showed up every day at feeding time.  She only gave them small bits of food, not enough to keep them from looking for food on their own.

Where’s the crocodile?  There.  There’s the crocodile!.  (What you can’t see in this picture is Dad’s hand holding onto the back of his shorts!)

I think it’s so interesting to see how they float in the water.  I just don’t picture crocodiles as swimming creatures.  I picture them crawling up the river bank after some food!

Next it was time for the kite feeding.  She led us away from the bridge and suddenly there were ten or so kites circling overhead!  They knew it was feeding time.

A couple of them kept landing directly above me.  None stayed there long, too much chance for food to keep still!  When we visited the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville they fed a kite during their free flight bird show, throwing the food up for the kite to snatch out of the air.  I remember him saying that in the wild a kite has to fight for its food as there are always other kites around going for the same thing.  We often see them as we are driving, groups of them circling around.

I know this is an exciting picture, but it’s the only one I took of the kids feeding the kites.  The woman had little chunks of meat and after she’d thrown a few she invited everyone to have a go.  It was great fun watching the kites swoop in and grab the meat out of the air.  Occasionally they’d miss due to our inept throwing and if it landed far enough away they’d grab it off the ground.  (That strategically placed black rectangle is to hide how much someone’s swimsuit was riding up.)  :)

TurboBug had a go, and it was the cutest thing.  He had to try several times to even get the meat to land far enough away that a bird would come get it.

He was so, so satisfied with himself when one of the birds dropped down out of the sky in front of him to eat the piece of meat he’d thrown.  The look on his face here (and those gumboots!) makes me laugh every time I see it.

In the trees along the creek was a huge bat colony.  A noisy one.  Did you know bats are noisy?  They remind me of angry budgies clacking away at each other.  There were heaps and heaps of them.  We could hear them from our campsite, after they’d left for the evening it was much quieter!

There was a good sized boab tree near the creek.  There was a sign on it and I expected it to say something about how old the tree was.  Nope, it was an old warning sign that crocodiles inhabit the creek.  Boab trees are becoming more plentiful as we move west.  This is a big one.

Bonus cute toddler pic for the grandparents.  Love my boy, he’s getting so big.