J Ward Ararat Guided Tour

J Ward front view

We called into Ararat on our way home from a trip touring around the area in the hope we could  join a guided tour of J Ward. J Ward housed some of Victoria's most dangerous men, those men who were deemed "criminally insane". The building originally opened as a goldfield prison in 1859, during this time three men were hung here and their bodies buried in the grounds in unmarked graves. In the mid 1880's the site was  acquired by the Lunacy Department to house those men who were deemed criminally insane until it closed in 1991. Our tour guide on the day was Wally and he was a wealth of information about J Ward and the inpatients housed there, would recommend this tour as a must do.

 Front gate

Single staff quarters

 West wing

 Married couples quarters

 Ship picture painted by a prisoner still visible today

 Straight jacket

 Exercise yard inmates spent 12 hours a day here

Guard tower

Inmates carving in bluestone brick many hours with nothing else to do

 Building facade

 Entry to guard tower was from a stairwell outside the facility

 Underground kitchen facade

 Bread was baked on site in an old wood fire oven

Cell

 Stairs to second level

Cell block