Building of the gaol commenced in 1825, and predates the establishment of the penal colony at Port Arthur in 1833.

They include an example of a female solitary confinement cell, measuring 2 metres (6.6 ft)s by 1 metre (3.3 ft) The buildings include a chain gang sleeping rooms, a flogging yard, a cookhouse and holding rooms.

In the meantime, convicts were used as virtual slave labour to create all kinds of infrastructure like roads, bridges and public buildings.

A court house to service the police district in the area was built in 1825 and this was the start of the gaol building.

By the 1830s the gaol was horribly overcrowded because of it being so small - 19 square metres - and prisoners were forced to sleep in the passageways.

In 1861, it was controlled by the municipal police and when they were removed to become centralised in Hobart, the gaol simply became a group of holding cells.

The idea was you could be place in pitch darkness and complete silence for a period of 24 hours to thirty days.

As painful as it sounds, salt would be rubbed into the flesh wounds created by the cat-o-nine tails, but this was actually done to minimise infection.