From prison to backpacker hostel
A night in Fremantle Prison's new backpacker hostel was both an isolating and illuminating experience.
As darkness approached I entered the imposing prison arches, where thousands would have tasted their last morsels of freedom.
YHA's staff escorted me to my room, a former cell that bound female criminals from 1889 to 1991.
While the facility had all the modern conveniences you could need, the air was thick with a palpable eeriness that reminded me of its brutal past.
As I tucked myself into my dormitory bunk, I tried to imagine what was like for the hundreds of other women who had occupied my room.
Thinking about the tortured souls of the downtrodden delinquents who spent their days and nights within those stone walls made drifting off a challenge.
Shut in my darkened room, the sounds of footsteps and creaking doors in the hallway outside piqued my curiosity.
Though comfortably refurbished, it felt somewhat claustrophobic in the tiny prison cell that was once half its size.
YHA WA chief executive Domenic Pimpinella told me about a prison riot that resulted in the rooms doubling in size.
"The women protested about the size of the cells, so after the riot walls were knocked down and two cells became one," he said.
I shuddered to think about being confined in a cell half the size of the one I was currently in, let alone using a bucket as a toilet.
Crimes and punishments of inmates were a sober reminder of how lucky I was to be living in this era.
Mary Ann Laidlaw - two months for creating a disturbance, 20 days for being drunk and seven days for obscene language.
Many women spent years in and out of prison for vagrancy, disorderly conduct, prostitution, stealing and drunkenness.
The misery and despair they must have endured was a stark contrast to the bustling randomness of the backpacker hostel.
The new hostel, which YHA spent six years and $4 million developing, caters mainly for international visitors.
The 200-bed facility is the home of the former women's wing of Fremantle prison, bordering the main part of the historic site.
The accommodation opened to the public last week.
