The Mount Gambier Gaol is a heritage-listed former prison that operated from 1866 to 1995. The bluestone building is one of the most impressive pieces of colonial-era institutional architecture in regional South Australia, and its long operating life means the cells and wings span multiple eras of prison design and penal philosophy.
After closing as a working prison, the gaol was converted into an unusual combination of heritage attraction and accommodation. The old cells have been fitted out as basic but atmospheric rooms — you can actually stay overnight in a prison cell — while the broader complex is open for guided tours that cover the building's history, its most notorious inmates, and the grim realities of nineteenth-century incarceration.
Guided history tours run daily and take you through the cell blocks, the exercise yards, and the condemned section. Ghost tours operate on weekend evenings for those interested in the more sensational end of the history. The gaol's stone construction and the stories of the people held here make it one of the more genuinely absorbing heritage sites in the region.