Credit: YHA
AS HOTELS jostle to offer today’s travellers extra boasting rights by converting heritage buildings, YHA has launched its slightly grimmer option – the 200-bed Fremantle Prison YHA.
The budget accommodations operator is dangling rooms at a price of A$28 per person per night in a multi-share dormitory style arrangement, for a stay in a UNESCO World Heritage-listed 19th-century jail, a few minutes’ walk from Fremantle city.
YHA’s heritage-sensitive renovation has preserved the original fabric of the prison, including walls, floors and cells, and guests can choose to sleep in original cells or an eight-bed prison warder’s cottage outside the front gates of the prison.
The original Fremantle Prison was set up in the 1850s to house criminals deployed in convict labour, with hangings, floggings, escapes and riots at the facility being regular occurrences. It housed convicts right up until 1991.
When the Old Perth Gaol closed, female inmates were moved to Fremantle Prison in 1889. The prison’s laundry, bakehouse and cookhouse were sectioned off to accommodate them and extended twice. The former women’s quarters are what has now become Fremantle Prison YHA.
The budget accommodation offers guests use of a self-catering kitchen, a large common area, TV rooms, a laundry and luggage storage, a travel and tours desk and a 24-hour reception.
Wi-Fi, parking space, air-conditioning, heating, locks, a pool table, table tennis, and a conference room can also be found at Fremantle Prison YHA.
Credit: YHA
