Old Melbourne Gaol

The Old Melbourne Gaol is identified by its heavy bluestone walls and the high, arched gatehouse that looms over the corner of Russell and Victoria Streets. It opened in eighteen forty-two to house the colony’s criminals, debtors, and the mentally ill. Ned Kelly, the bushranger who became a folk hero, was hanged here in eighteen eighty. His death mask, cast just after his execution, remains held within the site, sitting in a glass case as one of its most permanent residents.