Davin Reporting!
Today we visited Newcastle, Australia. The day started with the rather unimpressive view of a commercial port, and a fairly long shuttle ride around to the opposite side of the bay, where the city was located. I was not altogether impressed by the city at first glance either.
From the shuttle drop off, we walked a couple of blocks to get a “train extension bus” to take us to the nearest train station. Apparently, the train used to run out this way, but now there is some new light rail construction project going on. I looked into the details of the project on my phone, and it seems there is some debate about whether the plan that was selected actually makes sense, but they’re going forward with it anyway.
Fortunately, Newcastle is on the same Opal card system as Sydney, so our transit cards worked seamlessly. In fact, you can even take the train up here from Sydney. I guess the only question is if you’d really want to? To put it in local San Diego terms, going from Sydney to Newcastle is like taking the trolley to El Cajon. El Cajon is a nice enough place to live, but there’s little reason for a tourist to go there either.
The bus dropped us off at the train station, and we set out to the countryside where the Maitland Gaol is located. The train let us off at a rather nondescript station and we started walking the short distance to the “gaol”. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and ended up walking around the entire outside wall, on a fairly hot and humid day (although nothing compared to some of the places we would visit later in the trip).
Maitland Gaol was complete in 1848 and, crazily enough, was used up until 1998! Admission to the gaol includes an audio tour which first brings you to the modern part of the gaol. The first stop was the visitation area, which was interesting to see, as it was a lot like the visitation areas we’ve all seen in TV shows or movies. I suppose if you’re going to see the inside of a jail visitation area, this is by far the best way to do it, too.
Connected to the visitation area were some of the isolation cells, and a control room. All pretty standard jail fare. Although built 250 years ago, the prison was ultimately used as a modern maximum security prison. Where things started to get kind of terrifying were the old cell blocks that were attached to the newer section. These were built in the mid 1800s, and they certainly looked like it. This section actually reminded me more of a dungeon than a jail: dark, dank and drafty. I actually found it both appalling and unbelievable that the jail was still in operation, and using these cells until as recently as the 1990s!
(Kristin Interjection: Although the inmates were gone, there were some new terrifying inhabitants in Maitland Goal– huge, creepy (but kind of beautiful) Australian spiders! Eeeee!)
As some general information, the jail at times housed both male and female prisoners. It was originally built under the isolationist principle, whereby prisoners were kept in isolation from one another, and human contact was kept to a minimum. This idea was cooked up in the 1800s, with the thought it would somehow lead to more effective rehabilitation, but it actually just caused people to go crazy. Later on this idea went by the wayside, and more prisoners were held in each cell– way more, with some cells holding as many as six people! Unfortunately for them, the cells weren’t designed to hold that many people.
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| An inmate's window out of prison |
There was also a set of outdoor cells reserved for high profile offenders. These were basically just a large yard, with a partially covered area. They were totally exposed to the elements, and living in them appeared dreadful, but Newcastle might have a mild enough climate that you at least wouldn’t die!
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| One of the outdoor cells |
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| The Yard |
I have two lasting thoughts from my visit to the jail. First of all, I found it absolutely shocking to know that this jail was in operation all the way up into modern times. The conditions were pretty deplorable, and I feel like it should have been retired at least 50 years ago, if not 100 years ago. However, I did find it interesting to learn that Australia did away with the death penalty decades ago– the U.S. is really behind the times on that issue!
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| The cell where prisoner's waited to be executed. |
Overall seeing the jail– excuse me, gaol– was an interesting experience, and I would recommend it if you ever find yourself in Newcastle. As to whether it’s worth a specific trip out of Sydney, that is a harder question. I’d say that if you are heading out this way in general, then it’s definitely worth a stop. Newcastle is near the Hunter Valley, so if you’re into wine I guess there’s something else to draw you to the area. Alternatively, if you’ve seen enough of Sydney proper, and the idea of seeing an old/new gaol really appeals to you, then it’s probably worth the trip.
(Kristin Interjection: Davin was the one who decided we were going to go to Maitland Gaol today. I didn’t know anything about the place, and I automatically assumed it was going to be a historical site, not a modern maximum security prison! Technically it was both, but we learned more about what life in the prison was like during modern times than in its early days. Life as a prisoner in the early days wasn’t as bad as it would become later. The prisoners were out farming crops during the day. Conditions got worse after they started filling the cells with more people than they were designed for. I thought the visit was eye opening in terms of learning what prison is like in the modern day and age. I felt that the tour was as close as one could get to going to a current, in-use maximum security prison, somehow magically disappearing all the guards and inmates from the interior, and then getting the opportunity to walk through it.)
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| One of the current inmates... |
(Kristin Interjection: We noted with some amusement that the jail has another use today as an awesome terrain for laser tag!)
We now were faced with the conundrum of what to do with our Opal cards, which still had about $30 due to us not anticipating that we would hit the total weekly fare cap. Unfortunately, you cannot get a refund except to an Australian bank account, which is a very tourist unfriendly practice (and unlike anything we’ve experienced anywhere else in the world!). We debated giving the cards to some random passer, but ultimately decided to just hold on to them, to possibly use them in the future.
Back in the city, we had two remaining goals: to find a postcard– we are collecting one postcard from each stop to place on our door, a practice I first observed last year on the Veendam– and find a place to eat– we’re trying to avoid eating on the ship as much as possible, to prolong the time it takes us to get sick of the food onboard the ship.
We first walked to a Mexican restaurant which had good reviews online, but when we got there we discovered it was closed on Mondays. Forced to move on, we came across another couple of “Mexican” restaurants, but they looked very unauthentic, so we just kept walking. Eventually, we ended up at another Pizza Hut where we ordered another pineapple and tomato pizza, and paired it with a soft drink and a poor quality donut from a nearby mall. For some reason, this pizza wasn’t quite as good as the one we had in Sydney– I don’t think it had enough sauce.
That left only finding a postcard, which, believe it or not, turned out to be a rather difficult task! It seems that Newcastle really isn’t much of a tourist attraction, so none of the stores carried any postcards. We spent at least an hour walking around in “touristy areas”, but finding absolutely nothing. We were coming down to only the last 15-20 minutes before the final shuttle back to the ship, when we asked the shuttle bus driver who suggested trying a nearby mall.
With time running out, we made a run for it, which almost turned out to be a disaster! It seems, Kristin’s backpack hadn’t been properly latched up after the camera was last removed from it, and running caused the video camera to fly out, and bounce across the ground! On first inspection things didn’t look too good for the poor video camera. Although it would still turn on, it wouldn’t focus properly.
At the mall we did indeed find a post card, and got back to the shuttle with a few minutes to spare, marking the end of an eventful day. I think I’m going to be happy to head back up North to winter though, and away from the heat and humidity of the Australian summer.
Some final good news for the day: on later reinspection the video camera seemed to have recovered from its fall, and was once again working fine! I guess we can count this as an indication that Sony builds things to last! It was a pretty bad fall– I’m not sure a Samsung would have survived it!
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| The coastal beauty of Newcastle |
Next Stop: Brisbane, Australia (February 24, 2016)
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