AGY-475 | Wentworth Gaol

Full description

The Wentworth police Watch-house or 'lock-up' used to confine prisoners with sentences of fourteen days or less was proclaimed to be a prison on 1 December 1870. (1) Some necessary improvements to prisoner accommodation were effected during 1877 after which the Gaol was reported to house three separated and nine associated prisoners (2) When the Prisons Act 1899 was enacted Wentworth Gaol was one of those listed in the second schedule as existing 'public gaols, prisons or houses of correction' (3) The Goal closed in 1928. The two final prisoners who had been sentenced on 9 February 1928 were transferred to the Broken Hill Gaol on 27 February 1928. Which is possibly the official date of closure. (4) FOOTNOTES:
(1) NSW Government Gazette No. 295, 1870, p. 2711
(2) Prisons report for 1877, A. R. 1878/79, v.2, p.1030
(3) Prisons Act, Second Schedule, The Statutes of NSW 1899, p. 249
(4) Wentworth Gaol, Entrance and description book, State Records Kingswood CGS 2585 [5/1510]