Prison break: Visit - and even sleep in - a former Australian jail

When you visit a former jail, you realise that walls really can talk: it's not just the graffiti in the cells and the exercise yards, it's the stories embedded in every stone.

There's something weirdly compelling about entering buildings that people once did everything in their power to stay out of. As a true-crime writer, I have toured most of the nation's accessible correctional facilities. Here's my pick of the bunch.

Pentridge Prison, which opened in 1851 and closed in 1997, has quite surreally been transformed into an "urban village" in Coburg in Melbourne's north. The jail's once-fearsome bluestone walls now embrace shops, cinemas, bars, cafes, an apartment hotel and even a children's playground.

But much of the original architecture survives under heritage protection, and some of the wings have been renovated for visitors.

Armed robber John Killick, who famously escaped from Silverwater Correctional Centre in NSW in a hijacked helicopter, occasionally takes groups around H Division, the former punishment wing made famous by the late "Chopper" Read in Read's hugely popular series of untrue-crime books. If you can join Killick you're in for a real treat, but the regular guided tours are also pretty good. Former prisoners seem drawn back to Pentridge, and you might spot one or two in the BrewDog bar, drinking away the bad old days. pentridgeprisontours.com.au

Everyone loves convicts (although nobody much likes prisoners) and the former penal settlement of Port Arthur is a world-class museum of the convict experience. Between 1833 and 1877, Port Arthur held the worst of the worst criminals transported to Australia, often men who had reoffended or rebelled in the new country.

Similar to Pentridge, Port Arthur boasts turrets and crenellations that hark back to an earlier, more romantic age - but with the additional draw of views out to the Tasman Sea.

Displays inside the ruined buildings tell a surprisingly compelling history of incarceration. Sprawling and engrossing, Port Arthur is the only historical prison in Australia where a visitor could spend more than a day. portarthur.org.au

Many Australian jails are open to tourists, but most of them closed to inmates long ago. An exception (almost) is the NSW State Correctional Museum, attached to Cooma Correctional Centre, where trusted minimum-security inmates at the jail take tourists around a museum whose eclectic collection includes a dummy of armed robber Russell Cox escaping from a supermax jail by sawing through rooftop bars while performing one-armed pull-ups. correctiveservices.dcj.nsw.gov.au

Old Melbourne Gaol, easily accessible just north of Melbourne CBD, is the prison where Ned Kelly was hanged in 1880. Capital punishment claimed the lives of 133 people in the jail. Uniquely in Australia, displays highlight the hangman's story, and the old wings are scattered with all kinds of repellent attractions such as the cat-o'-nine-tails that was used to whip William O'Meally, the last man flogged in Australia (at Pentridge in 1958), as well as the brace that protected O'Meally's organs while the lash thrashed his body. oldmelbournegaol.com.au

The sadness somehow lingers around Fremantle Prison ("welcoming visitors since 1850"), whose sandstone walls were built for convicts by convicts. The only man to escape from Fremantle and never return (because the prison closed while he was on the run in 1991) was Brenden Abbott, the so-called "Postcard Bandit", who was accused of sending taunting postcards to the police while he drove around robbing banks in WA, South Australia and Queensland: a story which was later found to have been invented by the WA Police Media Unit.

A 150-minute Tunnels Tour takes visitors on foot and by boat through a network of tunnels dug by prisoners (as hard labour, rather than escape routes) beneath the jail. fremantleprison.com.au

Old Adelaide Gaol, established in 1840, is now a museum (to itself) and function centre. It's a smaller jail, which makes it spookier, especially when the lights are turned down.

Whereas many tours in other jails tend to be for adults only, Adelaide Gaol offers a multigenerational experience, with "escape rooms" for both adults and children and prison-themed children's birthday parties including prisoner hunts and "mugshot keepsakes". adelaidegaol.sa.gov.au

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You can't get into Long Bay Correctional Complex in Sydney unless you have committed a crime. It is still a working jail, but anybody can visit Long Bay's Boom Gate Gallery, just outside the prison walls (adjacent to the boom gate, in fact).

The gallery mainly displays art from prisoners in Long Bay and other NSW jails. Some paint or sketch scenes from their everyday lives, such as their cells and their cellmates. Birds, horses and jungle animals are also popular motifs. And there is always a heartbreakingly large collection of Indigenous art.

Everything in the gallery is for sale and most of the price goes to the artists, who can use the money to purchase groceries in the prison "buy-up". nsw.gov.au/arts-and-culture/boom-gate-gallery

Pentridge: Visitors can stay the night at the Adina Apartment Hotel Pentridge, inside the old prison walls. Double rooms are from $183. Also at Pentridge, The Interlude is a super-luxe 'retreat' in the old B Division which includes, quite astonishingly, an underground pool and gym. Suites are from $253.

Fremantle: Budget travellers might enjoy Fremantle Prison YHA (private rooms are from $120), which includes rooms that were once cells in Fremantle Women's Prison, but I love the wonderfully appointed Warders Hotel, built inside the limestone cottages that used to house the prison guards. I don't know how the owners managed to transform this once stark and austere place into something so elegant, tasteful, comfortable and restrained, but they did. A complimentary minibar includes wine, beer, chocolate and chips, and a tap pours sparkling mineral water. Warders Hotel is served by the small and cosy Gimlet bar, and the large and popular Emily Taylor Asian-fusion restaurant. Terrace rooms are from $299.

The writer travelled at his own expense.