More tourist stuff. Visited the Fremantle prison, used from 1880 something till 1991. Big, ugly, nasty place. Would work as deterrent to crime, certainly would deter us.Flogging was popular until the 1940s. (I got to be the guinea pig at the flogging post. Fortunately, only a toy cat-o-nine-tails.)
Found the origin of ‘cat got your tongue’ which means ‘you’re screaming so loudly you can’t talk’ and ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ which means ‘letting the cat out of the bag and preparing to put it into service’. As well as ‘room to swing a cat’.
Solitary confinement cells were lightless, measuring 7’ x 4’. Normal cells (until the 1920’s) had a barred window and also measured 7’ by 4’.
Hanging was another popular activity, men on Mondays and women on Wednesdays.
Guide was good fun, and end of tour, said, “If you liked the tour, remember, my name is Leah. If you didn’t like it, my name is Emily. And ‘rubbish’ is spelt with two b’s.”
A really, big, ugly, nasty place.
The weather’s still windy and rainy so in the afternoon Pam attended a historical chick flick, accompanied by Tony and Helen. I did some personal, nerdy stuff and we all agreed to meet for a drink at the end of the day.
We chose the Esplanade Hotel, huge, with impressive architecture, on the foreshore. As I stood at the bar with Tony waiting our turn, I got a tap on the shoulder. It was Peter Francis, from the Tyers Fire Brigade. I’ve never seen him in a pub in Traralgon, Glengarry, Yallourn North, (or the other few places I may have had a drink). But here he is in Fremantle.Just to make sure the laws of probability are well and truly made a mockery of, when I returned to the bar a little while later (for our second round) I got another tap on the shoulder, this time from John Onley, an old friend and sometimes customer.
If you ever decide to run away from life, don’t try to do it in Australia.
Now that's gemütlichkeit.
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