AGY-446 | Cootamundra Gaol

Full description

Cootamundra Gaol was proclaimed as a public gaol on 25 November 1886 under "An Act for the Regulation of Gaols, Prisons, and Houses of Correction in the Colony of New South Wales and its Dependencies and for other purposes relating thereto" of 1840 (4 Vic. No.29). (1)

In 1886 the prison's accommodation was two separate and 30 associated. Six male prisoners had entered and three had been discharged in 1886. (2) A plan of the gaol shows living quarters for a police officer and family, with the gaol behind this under the same roof. The plan shows two women's cells and five individual cells. (3)

The gaol was classified as a police gaol with few prisoners simultaneously usually serving sentences of up to 14 days. In 1886 one acting gaoler and one acting matron were employed at the gaol. (4) In 1887, its first full year of operation, 114 prisoners entered the prison and one hundred were discharged. At 31 December 1888 there were 6 male prisoners and 1 female prisoner in the gaol. (5)

Cootamundra Gaol was listed as a public gaol, prison and house of correction in the Prisons Act, 1899 (Act No.27, 1899). (6)

A proclamation of 11 August 1909 declared that from 16 August 1909 24 prisons including Cootamundra ceased to be prisons under the Prisons Act, 1899, (7) however this closure did not take place and the proclamation was reversed in the NSW Government Gazette on 18 August 1909. (8)

Cootamundra continued to operate as a police gaol until 31 August 1935 when it was closed by proclamation. (9)

Endnotes
1. NSW Government Gazette (No.688), 3 December 1886, pp.8265-66; "An Act for the Regulation of Gaols Prisons and Houses of Correction in the Colony of New South Wales and its Dependencies and for other purposes relating thereto" (assented 16 December 1840) (4 Vic. No.29), s.2.
2. Prisons Report for 1886 p.3 in NSW Parliamentary Papers, 1887 Second Session, Vol.5, p.1073.
3. Plan held in private collection. Note on State Records file AG/446; SR Plan 734, Cootamundra Police Barracks, Plans, elevations and sections showing additions. Main buildings and kitchen erected 1877; additions each side of kitchen 1900, stable 1901 shows the Police Barracks as adjacent to the Gaol.
4. An Act to authorize Lock-up Houses or Watch-houses to be used as places of imprisonment under summary sentences for short periods (16 Vic. No.26) (assented 6 December 1852); Public Service List (Blue Book), 1886, p.96 (SRNSW Library Cat. No.1809; SR Reel 3611).
5. Prisons Report for 1888 p.3 in NSW Parliamentary Papers, 1889 Vol.5, p.980.
6. Prisons Act, 1899 (Act No.27, 1899), Schedule 2.
7. NSW Government Gazette (No.109), 11 August 1909, p.4451.
8. NSW Government Gazette (No.112), 18 August 1909, p.4564.
9. NSW Government Gazette (No.156), 30 August, 1935 p. 3484; Report of the Comptroller-General of Prisons for the Year ended 30th June, 1936 in NSW Parliamentary Papers, 1937-38, Vol. 3, p.869.