Braidwood Gaol
  Entrance Book 1856-1899
  


Braidwood Gaol

This database was compiled from the list of Register entries of the Braidwood Gaol, New South Wales for the period 1856-1899. Unfortunately the exact date & reason for admission was not recorded in the register. An approximate time period was interpolated by using the ages of some of the "inmates." It must be stressed that travellers and others used the gaol's facilities as it offered the cheapest accommodation.

The field structure is Alias|Gaol No|Ship|Arrived|State|Age|Birth Place|Sex|Creed|Complexion|Height (ft ins)|Occupation|Make|Hair|Education|Eyes|Remarks|Period

Brief History

Quoting from pages 100 -101 of Netta Ellis' book titled "Braidwood, Dear Braidwood. A History of Braidwood and District":

In 1861 a substantial two storeyed gaol and gaoler's residence costing £1819, was erected at the northern end of Wallace street, on the edge of the Police Paddock where the barracks for the Mounted police had been built twenty five years earlier. In 1862 the gaoler, R Waters, wrote frequently to Sydney requesting extra amenities; he wanted a well, a shelter shed, a shower bath for prisoners and a fenced area for growing vegetables. More secure locks on cell doors were necessary "to prevent a sudden rush by prisoners at night on a false call". In 1863 the cesspool at the gaol was reported to be "useless except for stagnant water". Dr Redhead reported that the latrines had been "receptacles of faeces of five hundred persons for the past ten months, and as the weather lately has been very muggy the contents emitted a most deleterious miasma which together with effluence arising from decomposition of soaked animal blood and the various matter in the slaughter yards almost adjoining the Braidwood gaol account for the amount of sickness in the neighbour". It seems that incarceration in the gaol was a double punishment!

The gaol was demolished in 1936.

Netta together with her husband, Neville published the book in 1989 with an ISBN 0 7316 5589 3.

Its fully illustrated and contains 214 pages.

Acknowledgements

These original records are held by State Records of New South Wales.

I am indebted to Ms Annette Gleave for typing in the admissions back in 1985.

Mrs Dale Fearn nee Roberts kindly provided the original Gaol photographs from her family archives.

Thanks to Patricia Downes for programming the database and coding the site.

Braidwood Gaol

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