Unshackled Hobart Penitentiary

As i have eight convicts in my family ,it was important I finally visited the Hobart convict penitentiary. And wow what a place to visit Sharyn and myself went on a guided tour with the AMAZING SAM our guide. Sam was exceptional at explaining the convict history 👏 👌 We highly recommend everyone to visit and pay the $35 each for tour.

Located on corner of Campbell and Brisbane Street, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 🇦🇺 This is quite a great little museum. We couldn’t do the Guided tour as they were booked out but we went into the Memorial. This cost $15.00 (concession) and our guide (Jimmy) was fantastic. Do full of knowledge and very friendly. The memorial is wonderful, you can enter your ancestors name and information about how he/she was convicted, their crimes and sentences and so on. If you don’t know any specific ancestors name, you can enter your family names and you can get hits on these. It’s extremely interesting. This is in the courthouse area. You can also look through the museum rooms where there’s a lot of convict artifacts recovered from the gaol to browse. In the Rogue’s gallery, you can hear some convicts tell their own stories. Very clever. There is a small gift/souvenir shop at the front of the building. There is toilet 🚻 facilities. We were there for approximately an hour. It would have been nice to do the guided tour. The Penitentiary has a rich history dating back to 1821 when it was the Hobart Prison Barracks. I would definitely recommend a visit. Thanks Jimmy for making our visit memorable. Thumbs up! 👍👍

Couldn’t get a ticket of the ghost tour so we went there in a day time session. Advance booking for a guided tour is a must to see around the penitentiary. The makeup guide Jim was informative. We can even trace to discover our convict ancestors from their data base if any. Good to know more about the convict history of this piece of land.

The Hobart Convict Penitentiary was easily one of the highlights of our visit to Hobart and, in my opinion, the best tour in the city. The guides bring the stories of the convicts, guards, and early colonial era to life, making the history both fascinating and memorable. While the tour is a little pricey, it is absolutely worth the cost for the depth of information and access to such an important historic site. One of the best features is being able to look up convict records at the end of the tour. If you have an ancestor who was transported to Tasmania, it adds a really personal connection to the experience and makes the history feel incredibly real. A must-do for anyone interested in Tasmania's convict past, and especially rewarding if you have family history to explore. Highly recommended. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐