Alice Springs Gaol

The Alice Springs Gaol was the new name given to the Stuart Town Gaol in 1933 when the town of Stuart was officially renamed Alice Springs. Run by the government the Gaol housed male and female, adult and juvenile prisoners. In 1938 the Alice Springs Gaol was closed. It was replaced by HM Gaol and Labour Prison, Alice Springs.

The Alice Springs Gaol was the new name given to the Stuart Town Gaol in 1933 when the town of Stuart was officially renamed Alice Springs. Located at 8 Parsons Street, Alice Springs, and run by the government the Gaol housed male and female, adult and juvenile prisoners. In 1938 the Alice Springs Gaol was closed. It was replaced by HM Gaol and Labour Prison, Alice Springs.

In March 1942, after Darwin was bombed by the Japanese and the whole of the Northern Territory administration moved to Alice Springs, the Stuart Town Gaol was taken over by the Commonwealth Bank. When the bank moved out it was used by local police as a storage facility. In the 1960s it became an unofficial police club.

In the 1970s the government decided to pull the gaol down and build a new police station and law courts where it stood. A small group of local residents, lead by Mrs Doreen Braitling, saved the building from demolition. It was then taken over by the National Trust. It is now a small museum. The gaol was placed on the Northern Territory Heritage Register in February 1994.