HM Prison Pentridge
HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison that was established in 1851 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison closed on 1 May 1997.[5]
Pentridge was often referred to as the "Bluestone College", "Coburg College" or "College of Knowledge". The grounds were originally landscaped by landscape gardener Hugh Linaker.[6]
The site is split into two parts. The northern part of the prison, referred to as the "Pentridge Coburg" or "Pentridge Piazza" site, is bordered by Champ Street, Pentridge Boulevard, Murray Road and Stockade Avenue.[7] It is under development by the developer Shayher Group, who has owned the site since 2013. The southern part of the prison, referred to as the "Pentridge Village" site, is bordered by Pentridge Boulevard, Stockade Avenue, Wardens Walk and Urquhart Street.[8] It is partially owned by the developer, Future Estate. D Division is owned privately by Pentridge Cellars Pty Ltd.
A – Short- and long-term prisoners of good behaviour. During the late 1980s, until its closure it became a scene of many monthly bashings, stabbings and bludgeonings.
B – Long-term prisoners with behaviour problems
D – Remand prisoners
E – The hospital, later turned into a dormitory division housing short-term prisoners
F – Remand and short-term
G – Psychiatric problems
H – High security, discipline and protection
J – Young Offenders Group. Later for long-term prisoners with record of good behaviour
Jika Jika – maximum-security risk and for protection, later renamed K Division
– Aboriginal artist who painted murals on the walls of his cell which remain on site[21]
Elliott Ronald Bull
– (d. 1993), also known as Garry Webb, responsible for the Community Protection Act 1990
Garry David
John Dixon-Jenkins – aka Anti-nuclear Warrior, imprisoned for planting fake bombs as part of a personal endeavour to raise public awareness about the global nuclear threat; authored The Unified Theory of Existence (A Love Story) while in Pentridge (1986).
– Australian serial killer
Peter Dupas
– convicted of murdering Lewis Caine and Lewis Moran with Evangelos Goussis during the Melbourne gangland killings, and was also the basis for the character of Keithy George in the film Chopper.
Keith Faure
– aka Mr Rent-a-Kill, hitman.
Christopher Dale Flannery
Kevin Albert Joiner – murderer, shot dead trying to escape in 1952
Robert Wright – murderer, killed a mother and her nine-year-old son in 1979; involved in two escapes including the 1983 Jika Jika escape. Died in the 1987 Jika Jika prison fire.
[22]
– poet
Shelton Lea
– U.S. soldier, known as the Brownout Strangler
Eddie Leonski
– a trade unionist, arrested for contempt of court, triggering massive state-wide strike action
Clarrie O'Shea
– a member of the Pettingill family, acquitted of the 1988 Walsh Street police shootings. Killed in 2002.
Victor Peirce
– a bushranger
Harry Power
– a gang leader and standover man
Mark "Chopper" Read
James "Jimmy" Loughnan – an armed robber; broke both legs jumping from a Pentridge wall in an escape attempt in 1977. Died in the 1987 Jika Jika prison fire.
[22]
– the last person to be executed in Australia
Ronald Ryan
– imprisoned in the 1980s due to trading hours activism
Frank Penhalluriack
(a.k.a. Maxwell Karl Skinner) (1928–1998)[23] – serial escapee, infamous for commandeering a Coburg tram in one of his escapes.
Maxwell Carl Skinner
– a sculptor
William Stanford
Stan Taylor – an actor and convicted
Russell Street bomber
– a gangster
Squizzy Taylor
– the first person to be found guilty of having failed to comply with his call-up notice during the Vietnam War
John Zarb
– Indigenous actor and community leader
Jack Charles
– Playwright, rapist
Ray Mooney
– Indigenous actor, choreographer and writer, imprisoned for homosexual acts in 1951 and raped by two of the guards
Noel Tovey
– a drug smuggler arrested following Operation Aries, a Victoria Police/Federal Police taskforce operation reported to have cost over A$2 million
David McMillan
1851: HM Prison Pentridge established.
1924: was closed and its prisoners were relocated to Pentridge.
Melbourne Gaol
1951: The last woman to be executed in Australia, , was hanged.
Jean Lee
1967: The last person to be executed in Australia, , is executed at Pentridge. Between 1842 and 1967, 186 prisoners were executed in Victoria, including 10 at Pentridge Prison.[24]
Ronald Ryan
1987: Five prisoners died in a fire in the Jika Jika unit, during riots over prison conditions. Four inmates survived the fire.
1994: The infamous H-Division was closed and prisoners were transferred to the new maximum security facility, .
HM Prison Barwon
1997: Pentridge Prison is closed by the Victorian government.
1999: The State Government of Victoria sells Pentridge to developers Luciano Crema and Harry Barbon in partnership with Peter and Leigh Chiavaroli
2002: Pentridge is split into Pentridge Piazza, also referred to as Pentridge Coburg, owned by Luciano Crema and Harry Barbon, and Pentridge Village, owned by Peter and Leigh Chiavaroli.
2007: Luciano Crema and Harry Barbon sell the Pentridge Coburg site to developers Valad Property Group and Abadeen Group.
2009: The Pentridge Coburg Masterplan and Pentridge Village Masterplan are approved by the Victorian Planning Minister following a consultation period.
2013: The Valad Property Group sells the Pentridge Coburg site to developer Shayher Group.
2014: A revision to the Pentridge Coburg Masterplan is approved by the Victorian Planning Minister.
2015: Chiavaroli sells the Pentridge Village site to Future Estate. Shayher Group commences construction of the Horizon apartments at the north-east corner of the Pentridge Coburg site.
2016: Developers Shayher Group rebrand the Pentridge Coburg site as "Pentridge" and host an Open Day, allowing the community to visit the site. Restoration works occur on the roof of A Division, the guard towers and the rock-breaking yards. The Horizon apartments, the first residential development at the site, are completed.
2019: Construction of the shopping centre, cinema and Victoria Tower and The Rook apartments begins.
2020: The redevelopment opens to the public.
[25]
1851 – one of fifteen to escape that day
Frank Gardiner
1899 Pierre Douar – suicided after recapture
1901 Mr Sparks – never heard of again
1901 John O'Connor – caught in Sydney two weeks later
1926 J.K. Monson – in W.A.
1939 George Thomas Howard – caught after two days
1940 K.R. Jones – caught in Sydney two weeks later
1951 Victor Franz – caught next day
1952 Kevin Joiner – shot dead escaping
1952 Maxwell Skinner – pushed off prison wall, broke leg
[26]
1957 Willam O'Malley – caught after 15 minutes
1957 John Henry Taylor – caught after 15 minutes
1960 Ralph Wahle - caught after 66 days
[27]
1961 Maurice Watson & Gordon Hutchinson – both caught next day
[28]
1965 & Peter Walker – caught in Sydney 19 days later
Ronald Ryan
1972 Dennis Denehy, Gary Smedley, Alan Mansell & Henry Carlson
[29]
1973 Harold Peckman – caught next day
[30]
1974 Edward "Jockey" Smith
[31]
1974 Robert Hughes & George Carter
[32]
1976 John Charles Walker
[33]
1977 David Keys
[34]
1977 Robert Wright – escaped by hiding underneath rubbish in a garbage truck
[35]
1977 James "Jimmy" Loughnan and three others escaped by climbing a rope that had been thrown over the wall. Loughnan broke both his ankles; Father Sean Patrick O'Connell found him lying in his garden that night and took him to Ferntree Gully Hospital where he was identified and arrested.
[36]
1977 Peter James Dawson and three others
[37]
1980 Gregory David Roberts, at the time known as Gregory Smith, escaped in broad daylight with Trevor Jolly, and went to India after a brief period in New Zealand.
[38]
1980 Trevor Jolly
[38]
1981 Peter Gibb – captured after a month on the run. Discovered to have been staying in St. Kilda with another escaped criminal.
1982 Harry Richard Nylander
[39]
1983 Peter Kray Morgan, Trevor Charles Bradley & Ross Anthony Burleigh
[40]
1983 David McGauley & Timothy Neville – escaped by climbing over the wall during a swimming contest between J Division and A Division. Captured after 18 days
[41]
1983 Robert Wright, David McGauley, Timothy Neville & David Youlton escaped from Jika Jika.
[42]
1987 Dennis Mark Quinn was recaptured in New Zealand 19 days later.
[43]
1993 John Lindrea & one other escaped from H Division. Escaped from prison cell after breaking large bluestone rocks to a size of a thumbnail on a daily basis. Scaled the roof and jumped over the front wall where a getaway car was waiting. Caught several weeks later in NSW.
The front gate showing the "HM Prison Pentridge" sign is featured on the cover of Australian band 's debut album Runnin' Wild.[44]
Airbourne
Episode 2, "Homecomings" of the 1976 ABC-TV adaptation of 's novel Power Without Glory, features John West picking his brother Frank West up from Pentridge Prison after serving 12 years for rape.
Frank Hardy
The 1988 and Evan English film Ghosts… of the Civil Dead was largely based on events which occurred in Pentridge Prison's infamous Jika Jika maximum-security prison during the lead-up to the 1987 fire.
John Hillcoat
The 1994 Australian film details prison life inside Pentridge's H Division.[45]
Everynight ... Everynight
In the 1997 Australian film , Wayne was a prisoner of HM Prison Pentridge.
The Castle
Rupert Mann's 2017 photo essay, published by Scribe, , contains interviews with, and portraits of, fifteen former inmates and staff who returned to the now-forgotten prison to tell its true and brutal story.
Pentridge: Voices From The Other Side
Episodes 578 and 579 of Australian soap opera feature the prison.
The Sullivans
Pentridge Prison is depicted in the pilot episode of the TV series .
Shantaram
Urban exploration
H.M. Melbourne's Pentridge prison
Pentridge