Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rocking the Boat: The Hay Gaol Museum and the Disruptive Narratives of Forgotten Australians

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology ((PSIPP))

Abstract

At 8:00 p.m. on a summer’s night, I am seated at the front bar of the local pub, in the New South Wales’ town of Hay, having driven five hours from Canberra, Australia’s capital city. Hay is situated on the land of the Nari-Nari people, has a population of approximately 3000, and is located on a flat, treeless saltbush plain at the crossroads where the Sturt, Mid-Western, and Cobb Highways meet. Many road travelers stop in Hay on their way to or from Adelaide, South Australia, but I am not passing through. Hay is my destination. Tomorrow morning, Hay residents will gather on the site of the former Hay Gaol, now a museum, to celebrate Australia Day. I want to witness how this commemorative event is conducted on a former prison site. Tomorrow’s temperature is expected to be 28 °C. The locals, who are used to hot summers, complain to me over their drinks, “It’ll be cold tomorrow.” I note their affability, but I also think that they are a tough bunch to have such tolerance of the heat. Hay is known for its wool, beef cattle, crops, and its brutal carceral history. It is a town that also hosts five museums.

We’ve done the best we can for a little town that just wants to do right by everybody. We don’t want to rock the boat.

—Jeni Japp, Chair, Hay Gaol Museum Committee (2015)

The officers left their morals out the front when they walked in that door!

—Diane Chard, former inmate, Hay Institute for Girls (2015)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Australia Day is celebrated annually on 26 January and marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the first fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales. Indigenous Australian leader and campaigner Professor Mick Dodson AM notes that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people refer to the anniversary date as “invasion day,” and has argued that this date of national celebration should be changed (Smiles 2009).

  2. 2.

    A community survey found that 85 percent of people in Hay believed that tourism is significant to the town’s growth (Hay Shire Council 2010a: 6).

  3. 3.

    Winlaton Juvenile School was a state-run institution, established in 1956, in Melbourne, by the Children’s Welfare Department for “delinquent” girls (Find & Connect no date b). The Good Shepherd Sisters ran eight Magdalene laundries in Australia. Hundreds of young women were incarcerated by the Good Shepherd Sisters, throughout the twentieth century and forced to work, without pay, in the Sisters’ commercial laundries. Many of these young women had not committed a crime and were not afforded a legal trial (Chynoweth 2014b: 176–179).

  4. 4.

    This protocol was not always followed, however. The records of former prisoner Wilma Robb show that the welfare department had not authorized her transfer to Hay until nine days after she had already been sent there (Robb 2015).

  5. 5.

    Lynwood Hall, in Sydney, was built in 1891 as private residence and was leased to the New South Wales Government in 1917 as a school for truants. In 1936, it was established as a domestic school for female state wards (Find & Connect no date c).

  6. 6.

    The activity of dressing dolls was only introduced in the few years prior to the closure of the Hay Institute in 1974 (Robb 2015).

  7. 7.

    Donnison’s (1976: 13) inaccurate assertions include, “...[n]o girl under fifteen years of age was sent to Hay,” “no girl stayed longer than three months” and “no girl ever returned to Hay.”

  8. 8.

    The survey comprised a series of ten questions that were logically sequenced, thus some questions depended on responses from previous questions. The aim of the survey was to determine the degree of familiarity of academics within the humanities and social sciences with the notion of “Forgotten Australians” and “Care Leavers,” and the nature of any associated research, if applicable. Potential respondents were contacted by email. Survey participation was made available via “SurveyMonkey,” was voluntary, and the identity of respondents was anonymous. There were 114 respondents from June to August 2015.

  9. 9.

    While girls attended a court hearing, before being sentenced to Parramatta Girls Training School, even if they had not committed a crime, there was no additional court hearing for Parramatta girls who were sentenced to the Hay Institute for Girls.

References

  • Alston, Margaret. 2002. Inland Rural Towns: Are They Sustainable? Outlook 2002 Conference, Canberra, March 5–7. http://cms.assa.edu.au/.pdf/reports/ASSA_WorkshopReport_60.pdf.

  • Ashton, Paul, and Jacqueline Z. Wilson. 2014. New Contexts in Australian Public History: Australia’s Institutionalised and Incarcerated. In Silent System: Forgotten Australians and the Institutionalisation of Women and Children, eds. Paul Ashton and Jacqueline Z. Wilson. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2008. Eyes to the Floor: The Hay Institution for Girls. Radio National, May 8. http://abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/eyes-to-the-floor-the-hay-institution-for-girls/3261700. Accessed 14 June 2015.

  • Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2009. Exposed to Moral Danger. Radio National, July 19. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/exposed-to-moral-danger/3069882.

  • Australian Government. 2005. Australian Government Response to the Committee’s Reports: “Forgotten Australians: A Report on Australians Who Experienced Institutional or Out-of-Home Care as Children” and “Protecting Vulnerable Children: A National Challenge. Second Report on the Inquiry into Children in Institutional or Out-of-Home Care.” Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Human Rights Commission. 1997. Bringing Them Home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bashford, Alison, and Carolyn Strange. 2002. Asylum Seekers and National Histories of Detention. Australian Journal of Politics and History 48/4: 509–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Besley, Joanna. 2009. Making Peace with the Past? Report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia. http://churchilltrust.com.au/media/fellows/Besley_Joanna_2009.pdf. Accessed 7 June 2015.

  • Butler, Kelly Jean. 2013. Witnessing Australian Stories: History, Testimony, and Memory in Contemporary Culture. New Jersey. Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butcher, Tertia. 2015. Telephone interview with author, June 22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrington, Kerry (with Margeret Pereira). 2009. Offending Youth: Sex, Crime and Justice. New South Wales: Federation Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, Caroline. 2015. Telephone interview with author, June 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamley, Wayne. 2012. Oral TRC 6200/138. National Library of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chard, Diane. 2015. Telephone interview with author, June 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Child Welfare Act 1939 (NSW).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chynoweth, Adele. 2014a. Forgotten or Ignored Australians? The Case for an Inclusive Museum Practice in Australia. In Silent System: Forgotten Australians and the Institutionalisation of Women and Children, eds. Paul Ashton and Jacqueline Z. Wilson. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chynoweth, Adele. 2014b. Women Crucified for the Sins of the Father: Censorship and the Crucifixion Motif in the Art of Rachael Romero. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 30/1: 167–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chynoweth, Adele. 2015. Humanities Research: Forgotten Australians. Survey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Djuric, Bonnie, ed. 2008. 14 Years of Hell: An Anthology of Hay Girls Institution 1961–1974. Hay: Women about Hay.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnison, W. R. 1976. Hay Gaol: Museum and Cultural Centre. New South Wales: Hay Historical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Factor, June. 2015. Ignorance and Fear See a Return to the Days of the Child Convict. The Age, February 17. http://theage.com.au/comment/ignorance-and-fear-see-a-return-to-the-days-of-the-child-convict-20150216-13fsd8.html. Accessed 5 July 2015.

  • Ferguson, Matthew, Elizabeth Lay, Justin Piché, and Kevin Walby. 2014. The Cultural Work of Decommissioned Carceral Sites: Representations of Confinement and Punishment at Kingston Penitentiary. Scapegoat: Landscape/Architecture/Political Economy 7: 83–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Find & Connect. no date a. Parramatta Girls Training School (1946–1974). http://findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE01318b.htm. Accessed 17 May 2015.

  • Find & Connect. no date b. Winlaton (1956–1991). http://findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000192. Accessed 12 July 2015.

  • Find & Connect. no date c. Lynwood Hall (1939–1993). http://findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE00421. Accessed 17 May 2015

  • Fleay, Caroline, and Sue Hoffman. 2014. Despair as a Governing Strategy: Australia and the Offshore Processing of Asylum-Seekers on Nauru. Refugee Survey Quarterly 33/2: 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, David. 2012. Museums for Social Justice: Managing Organisational Change. In Museums, Equity and Social Justice, eds. Richard Sandell and Eithne Nightingale. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall, Jane, and Christopher Lee. 2015. Introduction. In Trauma and Public Memory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hay Shire Council. 2010a. Economic Development Strategy. New South Wales: Hay Shire Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay Shire Council. 2010b. Tourism Plan. New South Wales: Hay Shire Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden, Robert. 2000. Orphans of History: The Forgotten Children of the First Fleet. Melbourne: Text Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglis, Ken. 2010. From Berlin to the Bush. The Monthly, August, 48–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ivanovic, Milena. 2008. Cultural Tourism. South Africa: Juta and Company, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Japp, Jeni. 2015. Telephone interview with author, June 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kociumbas, Jan. 1997. Australian Childhood: A History. New South Wales: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lumpkin County Historical Society. no date. The 1884 Lumpkin County Jail and Museum. http://lumpkinhistory.org/jail-museum.

  • MacDonald, Sharon. 2013. Memoryland: Heritage and Identity in Europe Today. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martschukat, Jürgen, and Silvan Niedermeier. 2013. Violence and Visibility: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives. In Violence and Visibility in Modern History, eds. Jürgen Martschukat and Silvan Niedermeier. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rando, Gitano. 2005. Italo-Australians during the Second World War: Some Perceptions of Internment. Studi d’Italianistica nell’Africa Australe/ Italian Studies in Southern Africa 18/1: 20–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, Wilma. 2015. Face-to-face interview with author, April 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse. 2014. Report of Case Study No. 7: Child Sexual Abuse at the Parramatta Training School for Girls and the Institution for Girls in Hay. Sydney: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rytter, Maria, and Jacob Knage Rasmussen. 2015. A Great Find: Turning the World Upside Down. The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 8/1: 9–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Senate Community Affairs References Committee. 2004. Forgotten Australians: A Report on Australians Who Experienced Institutional or Out-of-Home Care as Children. Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. 2001. Lost Innocents: Righting the Record—Report on Child Migration. Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheedy, Leonie. 2015. Telephone interview with author, April 18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smiles, Sarah. 2009. Dodson Urges Rethink on ‘Offensive’ Date of Our National Day. The Sydney Morning Herald, January 26. http://smh.com.au/national/dodson-urges-rethink-on-offensive-date-of-our-national-day-20090125-7pgr.html.

  • Swain, Shurlee. 2014. History of Australian Inquiries Reviewing Institutions Providing Care for Children. Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tacey, David. 1995. Edge of the Sacred: Jung, Psyche, Earth. Australia: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tracy. 2015. Telephone interview with author, March 22.

    Google Scholar 

  • TripAdvisor. 2013–2015. Hay Gaol Museum, 7 June 2013 to 9 July 2015. http://tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g528964-d4300986-Reviews-or10-Hay_Gaol_Museum-Hay_New_South_Wales.html#REVIEWS.

  • Walby, Kevin, and Justin Piché. 2015. Carceral Retasking and the Work of Historical Societies at Decommissioned Lock-ups, Jails, and Prisons in Ontario. In Historical Geographies of Prisons: Unlocking the Usable Carceral Past, eds. Karen Morin and Dominique Moran. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, Ian. 2011. Findings of a survey of Queensland Forgotten Australians: Volume 2. New South Wales: RPR Consulting, 2011. http://www.ianwatson.com.au/pubs/rpr-report-vol2.pdf.

  • Wilson, Jacqueline Z. 2008. Prison: Cultural Memory and Dark Tourism. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, Jacqueline Z. 2013. Beyond the Walls: Sites of Trauma and Suffering, Forgotten Australians and Institutionalisation via Punitive ‘Welfare.’ Public History Review 20: 80–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varutti, Maria. 2012. Towards Social Inclusion in Taiwan: Museums, Equality and Indigenous Groups. In Museums, Equity and Social Justice, Richard Sandell and Eithne Nightingale. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visitor Information Centre (Hay). 2015. Email correspondence with author, July 28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, Clare. 2011. Forgotten Australians: Life Stories. Film. Australia: Alliance for Forgotten Australians.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Heritage and Museum Studies, School of Archaeology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Adele Chynoweth

Authors
  1. Adele Chynoweth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adele Chynoweth .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Arts, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Australia

    Jacqueline Z. Wilson

  2. Department of Criminology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Sarah Hodgkinson

  3. Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Justin Piché

  4. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Kevin Walby

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chynoweth, A. (2017). Rocking the Boat: The Hay Gaol Museum and the Disruptive Narratives of Forgotten Australians. In: Wilson, J., Hodgkinson, S., Piché, J., Walby, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56135-0_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56135-0_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56134-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56135-0

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation