Cultural and Theme Tours

Unshackled – Hobart Penitentiary offers four experiences for one ticket price:

Convict Memorial: a digital history experience allowing visitors to trace the lives of each of the 75,000 convicts transported to Tasmania 1803-1853

Pandemonium: a dynamic widescreen presentation of Tasmania’s convict years 1803-1853, shown in the prison chapel
Rogues’ Gallery: a series of portraits of colourful convict characters
Site tour: a guided tour of one of Australia’s richest convict sites, wrought by convict labour for convicts, moving through courtrooms, subterranean tunnels, cells, the gallows and the prison exercise yard.

The Hobart Penitentiary began in 1821 as the Hobart Prison Barracks, built as accommodation for convicts employed in Government public works. In 1834 the surviving Penitentiary Chapel was completed.

75,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen’s Land between 1803 and 1853. Of these 62,500 were male convicts. After 1821 all male convicts were processed here before being given labour assignments across the island.

In 1857-1860 convicts still under sentence were employed in converting two wings of the former Penitentiary Chapel as courtrooms. One wing remained as the prison chapel for the Penitentiary, then known as the Hobart Gaol. The Hobart Town gallows were relocated to the site with thirty-two people executed at the site 1857- 1946. The Gaol was demolished in 1963 while the courts remained at the site until 1983.

Services

Hobart Convict Penitentiary Ghost Tour

$35

Come tour the Hobart Convict Penitentiary after dark and hear the stories of those that experienced Heaven and Hell in the Chapel and the solitary cells beneath, those that were sentenced for their crimes in the court rooms, the lives that were ended at the Gallows, and the spirits that remain haunting every wall.

Disabled Access

Carpark Non Smoking Public Toilet

Pandemonium - The Convict Film Experience

From $30 to $35

As part of the overall Unshackled – Hobart Penitentiary experience, immerse yourself in the chaos of convict life in Van Dieman’s Land through the world-class multisensory film experience ‘Pandemonium’. Hear the stories, feel the emotions, and walk the footsteps of the wretched souls who passed through here.

The Hobart Penitentiary, was the dark heart of the convict system in Tasmania. Behind the high, imposing walls, over 40,000 men ate, prayed, slept and were punished.

‘Pandemonium – The Convict Film Experience’ is an immersive audio-visual experience projected four metres tall onto the walls within the original Penitentiary Chapel where the convicts actually sat.

The film contextually connects the convict sites around the state, and explores the journey – from conviction, to transportation and beyond – of our convict ancestors.

Disabled Access

Family Friendly Non Smoking Public Toilet