"THE MAITLAND GAOL" a Maitland Travel Page by FleurFox

The Maitland Gaol's foundation stone was laid in 1844 and the first prisioners were transferred in 1848.
The gaol closed in January 1998 after hosting some of Australia's most hardened and infamous criminals.

There are guided tours, torchlight tours and if you wish to wonder by yourself, you can do that too.
You can also purchase souvenirs from the office. We brought a DVD/CD pack, a book and a shot glass.

16 men were executed at Maitland Gaol all for rape or murder.
Executions were open to the public until 1861.
The last man to be hanged was Charles Hines in May 1897 for raping his stepdaughter.
The picture is of his cell.

There seemed to be many artists that came in and out of the gaol.
One prisioner painted the windows of the chapel, as seen in the photo.
During the years, the chapel was painted and a false ceiling put on.
In 2007, they are renovating the chapel and trying to capture what it used to look like. They removed the false celing, exposing a beautiful wooden roof. When they started to take paint scrapings to try and match the old colours, they found murals that have a striking resemblance to the paintings of a well-known local artist who was known to have spent some time in Maitland Gaol. So they are really trying to preserve the murals for the public to see.