Fremantle Prison is the only World Heritage building in Western Australia, and the most absorbing single sight in Fremantle. The complex covers six hectares behind a six-metre limestone wall — main cell block, chapel, hospital, gallows, women's prison, and a network of underground tunnels carved by convicts to bring water to the city above.
Four separate tour options are run by the State Government, all worth doing for different reasons. The Doing Time tour walks the main cell blocks and tells the long convict-and-colonial story. The Great Escapes tour focuses on the legendary breakouts. The Tunnels tour goes underground for ninety minutes — by torch, climbing in and out of boats — and is one of the most distinctive cultural visits in Australia. The Torchlight Tour after dark is dramatised and not for the very young.