AGY-450 | Berrima Gaol [II] (1944-1949) / Berrima Training Centre (1949-1992) / Berrima Correctional Centre [I] (1992-2012)

Full description

The original prison was built in 1835 and enlarged in 1866. It was closed in 1909 and used as an internment camp during World War I, and as an army store and depot in World War II. (1)

A new prison was declared at Berrima in a proclamation made on September 20, 1944 to be known as Berrima Prison Camp. (2) It was to serve as a place of detention where prisoners undergoing sentences of hard labour or penal servitude could be put to work. (3)

This prison was deproclaimed in a proclamation made on November 3, 1949 and then in the same proclamation the prison was re-established under the name of Berrima Training Centre. (4) Specialised programs for first offenders were provided at these medium security prisons. At Berrima the prisoners were engaged in arts and crafts and local community projects.(5)

From late 1992 the name of Berrima Training Centre was referred to as Berrima Correctional Centre. (6) The centre was a medium/minimum security institution for males. The Correctional Centre was also responsible for the administration of periodic detention centres at Wollongong and Campbelltown and could hold up to 70 medium and minimum security inmates. (7)

The Berrima Training Centre was officially deproclaimed as a prison on 3 September 1997. (8) It was re-established on the same date under the Correctional Centres Act 1952 as a correctional centre called the Berrima Correction Centre on the same land. (9)

When the Department of Corrective Services was abolished on 1 July 2009 Berrima Correctional Centre became responsible to Corrective Services NSW. (10)

In November 2011 several NSW prisons including the Berrima Correctional Centre were closed after an unprecedented drop in inmate population. The Centre was officially revoked as a Correctional Centre on 10 February 2012. (11)

Endnotes
1. NSW Department of Corrective Services website, https://www.dcs.nsw.gov.au/correctional/berrima.asp.
2. New South Wales Government Gazette No.94, 22 September 1944, p.1621.
3. NSW. Department of Corrective Services. "An analysis of NSW Prison Proclamations" compiled by Denis Fitzpatrick. Sydney, The Department, 1996, p.5.
4. Ibid, p.5.
5. Official Yearbook of New South Wales, 1949.
6. NSW. Department of Corrective Services. "An analysis of NSW Prison Proclamations" compiled by Denis Fitzpatrick. Sydney, The Department, 1996., p.5.
7. NSW Department of Corrective Services website: op.cit.
8. NSW Government Gazette No.99, 12 September 1997, p.8038.
9. Ibid., p.8039.
10. Public Sector Employment and Management (Departmental Amalgamations) Order 2009 (2009 No.352) cls.20; notified on NSW Legislation website, 27 July 2009.
11. NSW Department of Corrective Services website, CSNSW History, https://correctiveservices.dcj.nsw.gov.au/csnsw-home/about-us/csnsw-history.html (accessed 6 February 2023); NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice, Annual Report 2011-2012, p.104; NSW Government Gazette No.18, 10 February 2012, p.404.

References
New South Wales Government Gazette. Sydney, Government Printer. 1832.
Department of Corrective Services. "An analysis of NSW Prison Proclamations" compiled by Denis Fitzpatrick. Sydney, The Department, 1996.
Official Yearbook of New South Wales, 1904/5 - 1988. Sydney, Government Printer, 1906 - 1988.