My Australian Journey (Part 7)

DAY 7 June 24, 2010
§ His Story or History? §

All human history from the earliest times to our own day may be considered as a movement of consciousness both of individuals and of homogenous groups from lower ideas to higher ones.
(Leo Tolstoy; 1828-1910)

Today we had an English class on Australian History, specifically we talked about Ned Kelly, the bushranger, or the Australian Robin Hood. At 11.30 we all went to Melbourne Gaol (read: jail) where Ned Kelly was jailed. Melbourne Gaol was located in the middle of the city, just two blocks away east of the Melbourne Central station.
We were divided into three groups and each group we had a guide. My group had a young energetic lady guide who explained A to Z of the jail. Before entering the jail, she told us some true and even creepy stories behind the history of the jail. It dated back to the 18th century of the gold rush period. Many people from all over the world came to Australia for gold. Crimes increased as there were more people yet limited opportunity for a living. Killing, theft, burglary, and other types of crimes became the government’s concern. So, they decided to build a jail just to house those increasing and dangerous criminals. What made the jail famous was that it’s “inhuman” rules. The criminals only had sunlight for one hour out of 24 hours they had a day. This “precious” one hour was basically used to take a bath and throw their urine and feces they had in their own cabin. More surprisingly, they wore a special uniform where their head was covered with metal like hat and only their eyes could open, so nobody knew who.
The youngest criminal ever recorded was a three-year old boy…(I forget his name). He was jailed not because he committed a crime but because he was found out standing on the street without his parents. Can you imagine that?? What made this more touching was that the boy must obey the rules of the jail without exception despite his young age. This was just crazy, I guess. He was released after serving in jail for six months and was put outside the jail with nobody. Since then, there was no news about him, whether he died because of cold weather or survived.
Then, it’s time for us to enter the jail. Oh man….I never imagined to enter this spooky old jail. Once we passed through the “enter” door we were fascinated with the jail. It’s like a long hall with some small cabins on each side. The cabin was just 1 x 2 meter. That’s the jail for each prisoner. Inside the cabin, there was wax-made head of the prisoner when they died. It’s completed with some explanation about what crime he committed, the year, and also the process of giving them death penalty.
As I strolled down the hall, the guide kept on explaining us every single detail of the jail that made us Goosebumps. The wood used to hang people, the torture table, and of course the famous Ned Kelly’s wax-made head were there, which was placed at the end of the hall. For the government at that time, Kelly was a criminal, while for the civil people he was like a hero. Frankly speaking, Melbourne gaol is recommended and a worth seeing object. We won’t regret it at all.
We had spent around 1.5 hours at the jail before we finally went on to the State Library. We went there on foot as it’s only four blocks away from the jail. The first thing to do in the State Library was putting our belonging into the locker. Then we entered this huge domed-shaped roof top with thousands of books and rows of computers placed beautifully with a librarian desk in the middle of the room. On the right side of the Entrance, there is a wide room specifically for playing. It had two 40-inch LCD TVs for playing games, some Nintendo, giant chess, and still so many other games and toys.
We moved to the third floor where we could see clearly the library. Besides, there was almost no sound at all here as people kept quiet. On the second floor was basically used as the museum. This was also where the original Ned Kelly’s armor clothes were exhibited. This museum was also equipped with some audio and video information so that we could understand anything there better. Overall, it needed more than thousands of words to describe this place, so I was speechless. The visit took place for about one hour, and after that was a free program for all students. As always, students spent most of their evening at the City central, exploring the city and its unique life. In the meantime, I had a dinner appointment with Steven, a representative of Alfalink Indonesia. He took me to Lygon Street or known as Little Italy. It’s only 15 minutes walk from State Library. Along the street there were Italian restos offering many kinds of Italian food: Pasta, Spaghetti, Pizza
Being tired, I decided to go home and let Yudi hang around with his friends as long as he could go home safely. What I liked from the students was that some of them always sent me sms telling that they were home. That made me feel relieved.