Yatala Labour Prison

Yatala prison, originally called "The Stockade" or "The Stockade of Dry Creek" when established in 1854, was named after the cadastral Hundred of Yatala. The word is presumed to refer to the flooded state of the plain either side of Dry Creek after heavy rain, the Kaurna name referring to water or inundation. The prison was renamed Yatala Labour Prison sometime before 1860.[2] It is known as a labour prison by virtue of its vast industries complex and the use of convict labour in construction.

It is sited in Adelaide's northern suburb of Northfield, 10 kilometres (6 mi) north of Adelaide's central business district and between Grand Junction Road and Dry Creek. The prison sits on an escarpment of the Para Fault Block overlooking the Adelaide plains.[3] Dry Creek, a watercourse usually dry in summer, flows through a deep gully immediately north of the prison boundary. It features outcrops of exposed pre-Cambrian rocks that were once extensively quarried as part of prison activity.

For the first five years of South Australian settlement there was no permanent prison. Prisoners were kept locked in irons on board HMS Buffalo until its sailing in 1837, and in temporary jails subsequently.[4] 1841 saw the first permanent prison built in Adelaide, with the Adelaide Gaol on the banks of the River Torrens, the building of which severely strained the new colony's finances.[5]

In the 19th century, incarceration in South Australia was seen as a punitive more than preventative measure. The labour of prisoners was used for public works and hard labour seen as an integral part of imprisonment. In this light, Charles Simeon Hare (member of the legislative council) wrote an 1853 letter to the Adelaide Observer, advocating prisoners be usefully employed, and further that a 160-acre (0.65 km²) reserve beside Dry Creek could be used for this purpose. The reserve had an abundant supply of stone that prisoners could convert into building and road material.[6] September that year saw Hare move, in the council, that £5,000 be set aside to enable a prison be constructed next to a quarry, whether at Dry Creek or elsewhere. This would enable the labour of the prisoners to remunerate the country.[7] Hare later became superintendent of the prison and maintained a colourful register describing prisoners.[8]

19th century

Twenty five prisoners were sent to the Dry Creek site to work in the quarries in July 1854, living at night in an iron house. Dry Creek prison was officially declared a gaol on 10 August 1854 and an act then passed commuting sentences, formerly of transportation to New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land, into imprisonment with hard labour, though transport to the latter had been stopped by the Imperial Government in 1852. The Prison began as an iron house with surrounding palisade and became known as The Stockade, a name retained in 2007 by the adjacent Stockade Botanical Park. Hare requested construction of a stone building, and by October 1854 this was completed using locally quarried bluestone, with accommodation for 60 prisoners.[7]

Yatala's powder magazine, used in quarrying

In its early years rock-cracking, hard labour and solitary confinement were the notable features of life at the prison. It was seen that hard worked prisoners would not wish to return to the prison, with solitary confinement giving them time to reflect on past misdeeds.[9] From inception prisoners main task was the breaking of one cubic yard of rock per day. Until the middle of the 20th century the prisons department's philosophy remained punitive with much reliance on obedience to rules and regulations.[10]

The first batch of 24 convicts was sent to the prison from Adelaide gaol on 9 February 1855 wearing the characteristic broad arrow pattern prison clothes of the time,[11] and the first escape from the prison took place October 1855 with 8 escapees. The prisoners were captured, chained in solitary confinement within the prison, then subsequently punished with 50 lashes for the escape and other disciplinary issues.[7]

For the prison, water supply was a constant issue, with carriage required from distant Port Adelaide. A well was bored in 1856 through 60 feet (18 m) of limestone but soon ran dry. For storage of rainwater, in 1860 a 300,000-imperial-gallon (1,364,000 L; 360,000 US gal) reservoir was constructed under the main courtyard. Water supplies continued to be inadequate until the 1878 construction of a pipeline to the Hope Valley Reservoir.[7]

A railway line and terminus, called the Stockade railway station, was opened on 1 June 1857 to service the facility and to aid with stone transportation. It remained in use until its closure and removal in 1961.

The first significant expansion of the prison buildings occurred in 1858 with the construction of B Division. Built in the centre of the prison with 123 cells and, in the 19th century, designed to hold 300 prisoners.[7] A new wing was added in 1872 with 36 cells, guard accommodation and a wall separating it from the rest of the prison, with 37 more cells added in 1878. By 1880 the accommodation was seen as insufficient for the 280 prisoners then held, with up to three per cell and eighteen per dormitory room. A T shaped building was constructed in 1884 with 96 cells over three floors, and the walled area expanded. The building included a chapel, offices and three dark underground cells used for solitary confinement. Known as A Division, it was built by prisoners at the jail as part of their enforced labour.[12]

The prison holds high, medium and low security prisoners, and is South Australia's main induction and reception prison for male prisoners. It still retains industry facilities that are the largest in the South Australian prison system, and is run by the South Australian government's Department for Correctional Services. Some of the original buildings and parts of old equipment can still be seen from a creek level walking trail, between the prison and new suburb of Walkley Heights. These include guard towers, quarries, a blacksmith's shop and a gunpowder magazine[16]

The prison is divided into four units:[17]

• B-Division – High and medium security mainstream prisoners, clothing colour dark green.
• E-Division – Protection Unit, clothing colour light blue.
• F-Division – Working division, which includes industries such as souwester, panda, assembly, laundry, joiners etc. This division has a clothing colour of dark blue.
• G-Division – The highest security section of the prison. Prisoners are under total separation.
• E Unit 4 - It is a small unit accommodating 16 prisoners.
• Holden Hill - Due to the critical bed-space crisis in South Australian prisons, Holden Hill became functional in 2016. It can accommodate 19 prisoners.

Yatala is reported as having 603 prisoners in a facility designed for 341. The prison was planned to be closed when a new prison at Mobilong was completed, though some buildings will be retained for their historic values.[18] It was expected that the closure will happen by 2011, and the land developed for residential housing but this has been cancelled. No current funding has been put in place for the new prison, therefore the land redevelopment will not occur as previously noted.

A new roster was implemented on 2 July 2011 despite a widespread outcry and criticism by the staff. Stephen Mann was the previous General Manager of Yatala. He was succeeded by Brenton Williams and currently Tracy Watkins. Paul Laister is Peter Forrests successor of the PSA representative for Echo Division. The new gatehouse was opened in March, 2013 by David Brown, the Chief Executive of Department for Correctional Services. The reception area includes two state of the art turnstile machines, which can detect any concealed drugs and metal objects. It is also equipped with an X -ray scanning machine. After checking through the turnstiles, visitors and staff must go through an Iris scan and fingerprint detecting booths to gain entry into the prison.[19]

• Alan Bond – businessman, spent a brief time in Yatala during his fraud trial in the early 1990s.
• John Bunting – serial killer, ringleader in the Snowtown murders, and his accomplices Robert Wagner, James Vlassakis, and Mark Haydon.
• Jason Alexander Downie, repeatedly stabbed Andrew, Rose and Chantelle Rowe at their home in Kapunda.
• Bevan Spencer von Einem – convicted murderer and suspected serial murderer.
• Jean Eric Gassy – deregistered Sydney psychiatrist who shot dead South Australia's head of mental health in October 2002.
• David Hicks – the Australian Guantánamo Bay detainee convicted by US military tribunal of providing material support for terrorism.[20] Hicks was released 29 December 2007.[21]
• James William Miller – served six consecutive life sentences for murder in relation to the Truro Murders. Died of cancer in 2008.[22]
• Bradley John Murdoch – convicted murderer of Peter Falconio, was held briefly in the prison before being extradited.
• Rupert Maxwell (Max) Stuart (1932-2014) – Arrernte man whose 1959 conviction for murder lead to a Royal Commission and a 2002 film; paroled in 1973.
• Rodney Clavell – He had worked as a former prison officer at Yatala and Mobilong prisons in the early 2000s, before turning to a life of crime. He took his own life during a siege after being pursued by police in 2014.[23]

• Lewis, H. John (1985). ENFIELD and The Northern Villages. The corporation of the city of Enfield. ISBN 0-85864-090-2.

• Hundred of Yatala
• District Council of Yatala