Closing the cell door : where are the Histories of Care-leavers at the old Melbourne Gaol?

Journal article


Musgrove, N. and Saxton, L.. (2024). Closing the cell door : where are the Histories of Care-leavers at the old Melbourne Gaol? International Journal of Heritage Studies. 30(11), pp. 1324-1335. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2024.2378421
AuthorsMusgrove, N. and Saxton, L.
Abstract

The Old Melbourne Gaol maintains a crucial place in social histories of the city. The Gaol ceased operation in 1924 and, as a heritage site, locates its history firmly in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. While the exhibition invites a moral consideration of modes of punishment implemented in the gaol, its critique suggests resolution: these are not practices that we engage in now. By presenting these kinds of closed or finished narratives, the site turns visitors firmly towards the past rather than creating a site which invites reflection on the harms that carceral institutions continue to inflict in the present day. This, we argue, has a particular significance for Care-leavers, who are a significant demographic to have passed through the Gaol’s walls. While recognising that a site like the Old Melbourne Gaol has innumerable memory communities invested in it, and that no presentation of the site might fully satisfy them all, this article argues for present-looking public histories that place the gaol’s history in conversation with weighty social justice issues of today, including acknowledging the gaol’s role as part of the foundations of the ‘care’-to-prison pipeline observed by many activists as a pressing social issue in the twenty-first century.

KeywordsCare-Leaver Activism; Dark Tourism; Sites of Conscience
Year2024
JournalInternational Journal of Heritage Studies
Journal citation30 (11), pp. 1324-1335
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2024.2378421
Web address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2024.2378421#abstract
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range1324-1335
FunderAustralian Research Council (ARC)
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online12 Jul 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted03 Jul 2024
Deposited17 Mar 2025
ARC Funded ResearchThis output has been funded, wholly or partially, under the Australian Research Council Act 2001
Grant IDDP210101275
Additional information

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided theoriginal work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allowthe posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Permalink -

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/90xwx/closing-the-cell-door-where-are-the-histories-of-care-leavers-at-the-old-melbourne-gaol

Download files


Publisher's version
  • 9
    total views
  • 3
    total downloads
  • 9
    views this month
  • 3
    downloads this month
These values are for the period from 19th October 2020, when this repository was created.

Export as

Related outputs

Activism and institutional care : History, heritage and social memory
Wilson, Jacqueline, Musgrove, Nell and McGinniss, David. (2024). Activism and institutional care : History, heritage and social memory. International Journal of Heritage Studies. pp. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2024.2386703
Emotion as a tool for humanising histories of the marginalised : a case study of industrial schools in Colonial Victoria
Musgrove, Nell Jane. (2024). Emotion as a tool for humanising histories of the marginalised : a case study of industrial schools in Colonial Victoria. Social History. 49(1), pp. 53-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2281150
Writing the concubine : Anne Boleyn, Eustace Chapuys and popular historiography in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy
Saxton, Laura. (2023). Writing the concubine : Anne Boleyn, Eustace Chapuys and popular historiography in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Rethinking History. 28(1), pp. 50-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2023.2269825
Settler colonial expansion and the institutionalisation of children in Victoria, Australia
Musgrove, Nell. (2023). Settler colonial expansion and the institutionalisation of children in Victoria, Australia. Settler Colonial Studies. pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2023.2265096
Aboriginal knowledge, the history classroom and the Australian university
Musgrove, Nell and Wolfe, Naomi. (2022). Aboriginal knowledge, the history classroom and the Australian university. History of Education Review. 51(2), pp. 123-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/HER-04-2021-0010
Trove and the history of childhood – combiningmicrohistory and big data
Swain, Shurlee, Musgrove, Nell, O’Neill, Cate and Thurley-Hart, Constance. (2021). Trove and the history of childhood – combiningmicrohistory and big data. History Australia. 18(4), pp. 840-845. https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2021.1993742
'She was dead meat' : Imagining the execution of Anne Boleyn in history and fiction
Saxton, Laura. (2020). 'She was dead meat' : Imagining the execution of Anne Boleyn in history and fiction. Parergon. 37(2), pp. 103-124. https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2020.0064
A true story : Defining accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction
Saxton, Laura. (2020). A true story : Defining accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction. Rethinking History. 24(2), pp. 127-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2020.1727189
Twice forgotten : Assessing the scale and nature of foster care coverage in Australian historical newspapers
Musgrove, Nell. (2020). Twice forgotten : Assessing the scale and nature of foster care coverage in Australian historical newspapers. The History of the Family. 25(1), pp. 70-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2019.1647264
Hearing children's voices : Conceptual and methodological challenges
Musgrove, Nell, Leahy, Carla Pascoe and Moruzi, Kristine. (2019). Hearing children's voices : Conceptual and methodological challenges. In In Moruzi, Kristine, Musgrove, Nell and Leahy, Carla Pascoe (Ed.). Children's voices from the past : New historical and interdisciplinary perspectives pp. 1-25 Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11896-9_1
The slow evolution of foster care in Australia: Just like a family?
Musgrove, Nell and Michell, Deidre. (2018). The slow evolution of foster care in Australia: Just like a family Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93900-1
Abuse of foster children in nineteenth-century Australia: Why did it happen then, and why does it matter now?
Musgrove, Nell Jane. (2016). Abuse of foster children in nineteenth-century Australia: Why did it happen then, and why does it matter now? History of Education. 45(4), pp. 460 - 476. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2016.1177608
Locating foster care : Place and space in care leavers' childhood memories
Musgrove, Nell. (2015). Locating foster care : Place and space in care leavers' childhood memories. Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. 8(1), pp. 106 - 122. https://doi.org/10.1353/hcy.2015.0010
The unblemished concubine: Representations of Anne Boleyn in the English written word, 2000-2012
Saxton, Laura. (2015). The unblemished concubine: Representations of Anne Boleyn in the English written word, 2000-2012 [Thesis]. https://doi.org/10.4226/66/5a9780ae3bac0
The role and importance of history
Musgrove, Nell. (2015). The role and importance of history. In In J. Skold and S. Swain (Ed.). Apologies and the legacy of abuse of children in 'care': International perspectives pp. 147 - 158 Palgrave Macmillan.
There is more to the story than this, of course': Character and affect in Phillippa Gregory's The White Queen
Saxton, Laura. (2014). There is more to the story than this, of course': Character and affect in Phillippa Gregory's The White Queen. Cerae: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 1, pp. 117 - 140.
Contained and confined: Female incarceration in nineteenth-century Australia
Swain, Shurlee and Musgrove, Nell. (2014). Contained and confined: Female incarceration in nineteenth-century Australia. In In P. Ashton and J. Z. Wilson (Ed.). pp. 3 - 15 Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Imagining foster families
Musgrove, Nell. (2014). Imagining foster families. Journal of Australian Studies. 38(2), pp. 175 - 189. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2013.877954
The infamous whore forgotten: Remembering Mary Boleyn in history and fiction
Saxton, Laura. (2013). The infamous whore forgotten: Remembering Mary Boleyn in history and fiction. Lilith: A Feminist History Journal.
The Scars Remain: A Long History of Forgotten Australian and Children's Institutions
Musgrove, Nell. (2013). The Scars Remain: A Long History of Forgotten Australian and Children's Institutions Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Flirting with power: Gender and politics in twenty-first-century representations of Anne Boleyn as Queen Consort
Saxton, Laura. (2012). Flirting with power: Gender and politics in twenty-first-century representations of Anne Boleyn as Queen Consort. In M K Harmes, L Henderson and B Harmes (Ed.). The British World: Religion, Memory, Society, Culture. Refereed Proceedings of the Conference hosted by the University of Southern Queensland. Australia: CS Digital Print. pp. 63 - 74
Flirting with power: Gender and politics in twenty-first-century representations of Anne Boleyn as Queen Consort
Saxton, Laura. (2012). Flirting with power: Gender and politics in twenty-first-century representations of Anne Boleyn as Queen Consort. In M K Harmes, L Henderson and B Harmes (Ed.). The British World: Religion, Memory, Society, Culture. Refereed Proceedings of the Conference hosted by the University of Southern Queensland. Australia: CS Digital Print. pp. 63 - 74
Teresa Wardell: Gender, Catholicism and social welfare in Melbourne
Musgrove, Nell. (2011). Teresa Wardell: Gender, Catholicism and social welfare in Melbourne. In In F. Davis, N. Musgrove and J. Smart (Ed.). pp. 130 - 148 University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre....
Takin' care of business: Collaboration, equity and respect for Indigenous culture in tertiary education
Musgrove, Nell and Wolfe, Naomi. (2011). Takin' care of business: Collaboration, equity and respect for Indigenous culture in tertiary education. In B. Offord and R. Garbutt (Ed.). A scholarly affair: proceedings of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia 2010 national conference. Australia: Southern Cross University Press. pp. 107 - 115
The 'best interests of the child' historical perspectives
Musgrove, Nell and Swain, Shurlee. (2010). The 'best interests of the child' historical perspectives. Children Australia. 35(2), pp. 35 - 37. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1035077200001048
'Every time I think of baby I cry' dislocation and survival in Victoria's child welfare system
Musgrove, Nell. (2008). 'Every time I think of baby I cry' dislocation and survival in Victoria's child welfare system. Australian Historical Studies. 39(2), pp. 213 - 228. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314610802033189
The Australian labour movement and working mothers in the United Nation's Decade for Women, 1975-1985
Grimshaw, Patricia, Musgrove, Nell and Swain, Shurlee Lesley. (2007). The Australian labour movement and working mothers in the United Nation's Decade for Women, 1975-1985. In J. Kimber and P. Love (Ed.). The Time of Their Lives. Melbourne, Australia: Southwood Press. pp. 137 - 152