Gaols of NSW - HM Grafton Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
By Throsbyonchurch on 13-Jul-20. Waypoint GA22969

Gaols of NSW

HM Grafton

Architect: Henry A Wilshire

Built: ~1893

Opened: 8 Sep 1893

Closed: 18 Dec 1991

Clasification: Medium Security

The current Grafton Gaol complex is the third gaol to be constructed to serve the town of Grafton. Correctional facilities were first established in Grafton in 1862 under the supervision of the Office of the Sheriff accommodating up to 48 inmates. A second complex was established but did not contain the required number of cells, was floodprone and unhygienic.

A permanent facility was not established until 1893. During the early 1890s, the design of public buildings was not automatically given to the Government Architect, but was open to competition.

Sydney architect Henry Austin Wilshire won the Grafton Gaol competition with a design following trends already evident in the gaols designed by the Colonial Architect. The design consisted of a square compound, with brick walls, with an elaborate gatehouse, featuring a machicolated parapet, a sandstone archway and elaborate panelled doors. The gaol was built by the Holloway Bros. and proclaimed on 8 September 1893. Prisoners were transferred to the new facility in November of the same year.

By 1924, the gaol had been reclassified as a maximum security prison; reverted to medium security by about 1945. After 1942, increasing tensions in the state's prisons and a number of serious assaults on prison officers led to Grafton Gaol being used to house the most intractable prisoners.

The Grafton Gaol was officially abolished by proclamation from 18 December 1991, and was converted to a Periodic Detention Centre in the same proclamation. The remaining prisoners were removed and the new centre received its first detainees on 8 May 1992. The gaol's name was changed to the Grafton Correctional Centre.

In 2011 there was contention over the future of Grafton Correctional Centre, with some suggesting its closure or privatisation. The women's wing was shut in November 2011, with female inmates transferred. In June 2012 the O'Farrell government decided to downgrade the facility and the centre now houses up to 64 inmates who are taken into custody or are currently in custody and need to attend court in the Northern Rivers region.

Inmates from the centre make padded, waterproof Street Swags, distributed by national charities to alleviate the hardship of homelessness.

The new nearby Clarence Correctional Centre officially opened on 25 July 2020.

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