Yatala Labour Prison - History

History

For the first five years of South Australian settlement there was no permanent prison. Prisoners were kept locked in irons onboard HMS Buffalo until its sailing in 1837, and in temporary jails subsequently. 1841 saw the first permanent prison built in Adelaide, with the Adelaide Gaol on the banks of the River Torrens, the building of which severely strained the new colony's finances.

In the 19th century, incarceration in South Australia was seen as a punitive more than preventative measure. The labour of prisoners was used for public works and hard labour seen as an integral part of imprisonment. In this light, Charles Simeon Hare wrote an 1853 letter to the Adelaide Observer, advocating prisoners be usefully employed, and further that a 160-acre (0.65 km2) reserve beside Dry Creek could be used for this purpose. The reserve had an abundant supply of stone that prisoners could convert into building and road material. September that year saw Hare move, in the council, that £5,000 be set aside to enable a prison be constructed next to a quarry, whether at Dry Creek or elsewhere. This would enable the labour of the prisoners to remunerate the country. Hare later became superintendent of the prison and maintained a colourful register describing prisoners.