A former Australian prison, Fremantle is now preserved as Western Australia’s only World Heritage-listed building. Visitors can still explore its cellblocks, perimeter walls, gallows, and and underground labyrinth of tunnels—once home to imperial convicts, colonial prisoners, enemy ‘aliens’, prisoners of war, and maximum-security detainees. Although Western Australia began as a “free” colony, economic hardship led it to ask Britain to send prisoners, who then built the very prison meant to contain them. When transportation ended in 1868, Fremantle became a prison for locals. Intended for petty offenses, it soon housed…
