Skip to main content

Pentridge Prison, Australia's bluestone hell

Broadcast 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
James Phelps
James Phelps has long been fascinated by stories from inside Australia's most notorious prisons.(Supplied: James Phelps)

Writer and journalist James Phelps takes you inside Pentridge Prison, Australia's most infamous jail.

Pentridge began its life in the 1850s as a convict's stockade, built in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.

Its bluestone walls and turrets made it look like a medieval prison, and it was here that prisoners were tortured, beaten, and hanged.

Pentridge is the former home of Chopper Read, Ned Kelly and Christopher Dale Flannery, the hitman known as 'Mr Rent-a-kill'.

But James has uncovered many more hidden stories behind those bluestone walls.

Further information

Australia's Most Infamous Jail is published by Harper Collins

Credits

Broadcast 
Crime Fiction, Crime, Prisons and Punishment, History, Colonialism
QR code image for downloading the ABC listen app

Discover more podcasts

Download the ABC listen app to hear more of your favourite podcasts