Old Geelong Gaol

Bluestone 1849 gaol, now a museum with notoriously haunted reputation

Address Cnr Myers & Swanston Streets, Geelong VIC 3220

The Old Geelong Gaol, built from local bluestone in 1849, was the second penal institution in Victoria and one of the few examples of the radial-spoke "Pentonville" prison design left in Australia. It was in continuous use until 1991 — every cell originally had an iron-cot and a slop bucket and not much else.

It is now run as a museum by volunteers from the Rotary Club of Geelong. Daytime tours walk you through the cell blocks, the punishment cells and the gallows; the popular night-time "ghost tours" lean into the building's grim reputation. Open weekends and most Wednesday afternoons; ticketed.

things to do museum sight
A story
The gaol's most-told story is the 1894 escape of Andrew Vair, who hid in the kitchen flue and dropped out a sewer in broad daylight; he was recaptured within a fortnight, eating fish and chips in a Melbourne pub.