Showing posts with label Cooma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooma. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Going To Gaol In Cooma

It seems like every small town in Australia has an old gaol (jail) that's now a museum. So proud of their convict past!

Don't take a wrong turn in Cooma. Actually, not a museum. Right across the street from the "Corrective Services NSW Museum" is the genuine, open for incarceration, real thing, a working gaol. It just looks nicer than the exterior of the museum so it better fits this post.

Inside the museum, a big hodgepodge of artifacts from various defunct New South Wales gaols. You don't like prison chow? Go to the store and get yourself some fine Wheat-Bix. And your bunkmate may thank you. Stay away from the frozen dinners in the "meal barrow" (the stainless steel cart).

Contraband Hall of Fame. Drugs, weapons, cell phones, Pokemon cards. Maybe the cards are OK. Could be a gateway hobby.

Do your time as a guard, rise to superintendent and they paint your portrait. And then your wife donates it to a museum. Riot gear. Or as the PR Dept calls it, Special Emergency Response Team.

Typical cell with odd collection of items. His and His fans, waffle iron and random blocks of wood. Must be a unique hooch that's made in the toilet. Is that a thing beyond prison movies?