Lysander Prison Hulk: prison profile
VIC | 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
A distinct floating public prison added to Victoria’s hulk system in 1854. It was part of the Hobsons Bay prison anchorage rather than a land-based gaol. A government proclamation formally discontinued both Lysander and President as public prisons in August 1860. Its earlier non-penal ship service is outside this facility record.
Classification: Historical floating public prison; not a modern security-classified land facility
One record per named vessel. Shared anchorages, relocations, later non-penal use and the collective “Victorian prison hulks” are not additional facilities.
Contact details
Address: Historic prison moorings off Williamstown in Hobsons Bay VIC; no current prison street address
No current dedicated contact verified.
No operating prison or dedicated visitor contact; historical vessel moorings are not present-day prison addresses.
20 March is legible in the original 1860 Gazette scan. Automated text extraction mixes adjacent columns and can produce erroneous dates; no such OCR variant is adopted.
Opening, closure and history
Opening: 1854-03-20 — Public-prison proclamation date expressly recited in the 1860 discontinuation notice
Closing: 1860-08-20 — Public-prison use formally discontinued; gazetted 24 August
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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