Launceston Gaol (Paterson Street male prison): prison profile
TAS | Decommissioned | Australian Prison Directory
Source-linked profile checked 2026-11-12. Dates and capacities below describe the stated source period, not necessarily today’s available beds or prisoner population.
About this facility
The original Paterson Street gaol, later the male-prison component of the Launceston prison precinct. The separately recorded female factory was built beside it and opened in 1834. This profile follows the original gaol rather than the whole male-and-female complex. Remaining prison operations left the old site for a police watch-house in 1917.
Classification: Historic gaol; no modern security category assigned retrospectively.
Distinct adjoining institutional identities, later components of a common prison precinct. This record excludes the female factory and its successor gaol. The 1917 date concerns final prison use of the old site, not a separately established closure date for the female-factory buildings.
Contact details
Address: Former prison site at the present Launceston College area, 107–119 Paterson Street, Launceston, Tasmania
No current dedicated contact verified.
No dedicated current heritage visitor contact verified; the school’s general contact is not presented as a prison or museum contact.
1914 marks partial site transfer, not closure of all prison operations. The school’s occupation from 1916 is compatible with adjacent custody continuing until 1917.
Opening, closure and history
Opening: 1827 — Gaol opened, according to the government college’s site history
Closing: 1917 — Old prison site abandoned and prison function transferred to the police watch-house
1914: Part of prison site transferred to the Education Department for a state high school
Capacity
Capacity has not yet been independently verified.
Deaths in custody: totals and limitations
No complete facility-level series is established here for suicide, medical or natural causes, homicide, other causes, Aboriginal deaths or combined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths. Missing data does not mean zero deaths. Selected cases below, where available, are not lifetime or reporting-period totals. “Murder” is a legal conclusion and is not substituted for a source’s classification.
Photograph
No verified licensed photograph is installed in this profile. No stock or generated image is presented as a photograph of this prison.
Sources
Using this profile
Confirm visiting arrangements and current contacts with the corrections department or heritage operator. Heritage visitor contacts are not operational prison contacts. General information only, not legal advice.
This directory includes prison complexes and components and is not a complete Australian operational or historical census. Component capacities must not be added to their parent complex a second time.
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