Long Bay Correctional Centre
The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees. The complex is located in Malabar, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and is approximately south of the Sydney CBD. It is contained within a site. The facility is operated by Corrective Services New South Wales, a department administered by the Government of New South Wales.
The Complex accepts sentenced and unsentenced prisoners under New South Wales and/or Commonwealth legislation and comprises three separate facilities including the Long Bay Hospital ; the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre ; and the Special Purpose Centre.
Designed by Walter Liberty Vernon, the complex is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register with the following statement of significance:
The prisons' yards are built in a Panopticon style.
History
Indigenous history
Before the 1780s, local Aboriginal people in the area used the site for fishing and cultural activities - rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens remain in evidence.In 1789, Governor Philip referred to "a long bay", which became known as Long Bay. Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years. The population of Aboriginal people between Palm Beach and Botany Bay in 1788 has been estimated to have been 1500. Those living south of Port Jackson to Botany Bay were the Cadigal people who spoke Dharug, while the local clan name of Maroubra people was "Muru-ora-dial". By the mid nineteenth century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter, or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.
Colonial history
One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads. In 1839 William Newcombe acquired the land north-west of the present town hall in Avoca Street.Randwick takes its name from the town of Randwick, Gloucestershire, England. The name was suggested by Simeon Pearce and his brother James. Simeon was born in the English Randwick and the brothers were responsible for the early development of both Randwick and its neighbour, Coogee. Simeon had come to the colony in 1841as a 21 year old surveyor. He built his Blenheim House on the he bought from Marsh, and called his property "Randwick". The brothers bought and sold land profitably in the area and elsewhere. Simeon campaigned for construction of a road from the city to Coogee and promoted the incorporation of the suburb. Pearce sought construction of a church modelled on the church of St. John in his birthplace. In 1857 the first St Jude's stood on the site of the present post office, at the corner of the present Alison Road and Avoca Street.
Randwick was slow to progress. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand over the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. Even on the later estates that became racing empires, many jockeys and stablehands lived in huts or even under canvas. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St. Paul's Street and Perouse Road. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks in their struggle to survive.
In 1858 when the NSW Government passed the Municipalities Act, enabling formation of municipal districts empowered to collect rates and borrow money to improve their suburb, Randwick was the first suburb to apply for the status of a municipality. It was approved in February 1859, and its first Council was elected in March 1859.
Randwick had been the venue for sporting events, as well as duels and illegal sports, from the early days in the colony's history. Its first racecourse, the Sandy Racecourse or Old Sand Track, had been a hazardous track over hills and gullies since 1860. When a move was made in 1863 by John Tait, to establish Randwick Racecourse, Simeon Pearce was furious, especially when he heard that Tait also intended to move into Byron Lodge. Tait's venture prospered, however and he became the first person in Australia to organise racing as a commercial sport. The racecourse made a big difference to the progress of Randwick. The horse-bus gave way to trams that linked the suburb to Sydney and civilisation. Randwick soon became a prosperous and lively place, and it still retains a busy residential, professional and commercial life.
Today, some of the houses have been replaced by home units. Many European migrants have made their homes in the area, along with students and workers at the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.
Long Bay Gaol history
Long Bay was opened due to the imminent closure of Darlinghurst Gaol. The State Reformatory for Women was opened in 1909 and the State Penitentiary for Men was opened beside it in 1914. Gallows were in operation at the complex from 1917 to 1939. The reformatory became part of the prison in the late 1950s, known as the Long Bay Penitentiary. After the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre was opened in 1970, the women's prison was vacated and converted into a medium security prison for men.A report on prison reform released in 1946 found overcrowding at Long Bay. It recommended that sewerage replace pan systems in major gaols and that prisoners should have two more hours each day out of their cells.
On Christmas Eve 1985, Australian musician Paul Kelly performed at Long Bay.
A significant public health case arose in July 1990 when a mentally ill, HIV-positive prisoner was being escorted in the exercise yard. The prisoner took a syringe filled with his blood and stabbed a probationary prison officer. The prison officer was diagnosed with the virus five weeks later and died in 1997, aged 28.
In the late 1990s the facility was redeveloped to offer special treatment units which offer programs for sex offenders; those with intellectual disabilities; drug and alcohol abuse; or the use of violence.
Australian serial killer Ivan Milat spent the rest of his life in prison at Long Bay until his death on 27 October 2019.
Katingal facility
In 1975, a prominent supermax prison block was completed, known as Katingal. It was designed to house terrorists as well as problematic prisoners which had been identified as difficult offenders within the NSW prison system, replacing the intractable section at Grafton Gaol. It was considered to be inescapable and dubbed as an ‘electronic zoo' by inmates due to its electronically controlled confinement with artificial lights and air, depriving inmates from almost all contact from the outside world. The facility with its 40 prison cells had electronically operated doors, accompanied by several surveillance cameras, which were to supplement the existent security facilities within the unit. Although the unit did not have windows, it was serviced by a fully integrated air-conditioning system which circulated fresh air throughout. Additionally, inmates were permitted to engage in physical exercise in two purpose-built yards situated at each end of the unit. Several 'blind spots' that were not corrected during the initial design and construction of the facility led to a single escape by inmate, Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox, an armed robber and hostage-taker, who escaped after cutting through a bar on the roof of one of the exercise yards. He remained on the run for 11 years.The facility became the centre of mainly critical media attention, and was heavily criticised by Justice John Nagle during proceedings of the Nagle Royal Commission who recommended its immediate closure. The recommendation that Katingal be closed was accepted, but only after a campaign lasting months.
On 17 March 1989, Michael Yabsley, Minister for Corrective Services, announced that Katingal would be reopened as a correctional facility. When it was realised that the redevelopment of the site would cost double the 8 million allocated, plans were put on hold until a feasibility study was completed on the entire Long Bay prison complex. Demolition of Katingal began in March 2006.
Description
Male Penitentiary:The former Male Penitentiary comprised 6 two-storey cell wings, a debtors' prison, workshop, hospital and observation ward, all arranged around three sides of the complex with a "sterile zone" between them and the perimeter wall. The kitchen block stood in the centre facing the entrance block. The Penitentiary incorporated 352 single cells of size 3.96x2.13m and 3 punishment cells.
Four of the six wings had back-to-back cells opening directly to the outdoors.
The same palette of materials was used by Vernon throughout the dual prison establishment. Walls are predominantly of brick, good quality "commons" of a drab brown colour, with plain or rusticated sandstone dressing around windows and doors, and roofs of corrugated iron.
Entrance Block:
The exception is the entrance block which evokes a medieval castle gatehouse in Federation Gothic style. Technological advances such as electric lighting, reinforced concrete floors and the new tramway were made full use of in the design.