PENTRIDGE GAOL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 174, 16 March 1932, Page 7

PENTRIDGE GAOL

HOME OF AUSTRALIA' S MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS. SENSATIONAL RIOTS. Pentridge gaol, which was recently the scene of a sensdtional prison escape, is in the Coburg district, ahout four miles ' from Melbourne, is the chief gaol of Victoria and is regarded as one of the best-laid-out institutions of its kind in the Southern State. It housed some of Australia's most notorious criminals. The gaol is divided into three divisions — A, B and C. First offenders are in the first section, second and third offenders are in the segond, and the third section is the place of penance for the more desperate and confirmed evildoers. In 1918 Pentridge witnessed one of the most sensational riots in the history of penal estahlishments. At 11.30 one night the daughter of a leading warder was returning from a dance when she saw a shadow on the photographer's roof and gave the alarm. The guards were turned Oiit, and they made the astounding discovery that Max F!elling — a celebrated forger, ' known as "The Genius of Gaols" — James Townley, and Joe Gilmore had escaped from their cells with keys which Selling had made in the workshops. Hand Bombs. These three ringleaders had liherated -no ferwer than 18 other prisoners whom the guards found in the yard. The escaped prisoners rushed the warder s with hand bombs (said to have been made by Selling in the gaol chemistry. And when Selling was suhsequently searehed he was found to be in possession of a revolver which he had also made in the workshops. The prison officials quelled the disturbance and then made the additional discovery that eivilian clothes had actually been made in the tailor's shop for the escaping time-sexvers. Cause of the trouble was wage dissatisfaction on the part -of prisoners engaged in the woollen mills. A week affer the riot maliciops plans were laid to burn down the mills. When the last prisoner left them one night he placed a lightqd candle in some waste on the floor and at midnight the mills burst into flames. The huilding was burnt to the ground.