Alley 61

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Fremantle Prison — Fremantle, Australia

Fremantle Prison

1 The Terrace
Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia

-32.0550° N · 115.7537° W

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What happened here?

Fremantle Prison at 1 The Terrace is the best-preserved convict-built prison in Australia, constructed in the 1850s and operated continuously until its closure in 1991. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and major tourist attraction — but it also holds a specific place in AC/DC history: Bon Scott was incarcerated here briefly as a teenager, having been charged with giving a false name to police, escaping legal custody, unlawful carnal knowledge, and stealing twelve gallons of petrol.

Scott served time at the prison's assessment centre before being sent to the Riverbank Juvenile Institution for nine months. He was around 17 at the time. The experience didn't reform him so much as confirm him — Scott went on to become one of rock's great outlaws, and the story of his Fremantle Prison stint became part of his mythology. AC/DC's song 'Jailbreak' is widely believed to have been inspired at least in part by Scott's own experience of incarceration.

Fremantle Prison offers daily tours including candlelit night tours and the extraordinary tunnel tours through the underground passages beneath the site. It's one of the most atmospheric heritage experiences in Western Australia, and for AC/DC fans it carries the additional charge of knowing that their singer once looked at these same limestone walls from the wrong side.

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