It's the gaol for us

The next day we headed back to Melbourne to see the sights of the city. Much was like Sydney: they have great green spaces, the beautiful St. Patricks cathedral, and museums such as the old treasury. They have an excellent (and free!) tram the loops around the main downtown area to all the major attractions.

The highlight of the day was the Old Melbourne Gaol. This is a combined ticket with the Police Watchtower Experience, where you get to tour a Police City Watch Station set up as when it closed in the 1990's.

That was fun, but the Gaol is fantastic. Most of the cells contain a mini-museum on particular inhabitants of the prison, many with copies of the death mask taken after their execution. It's a grisly thrill, mixed in with changing ideas about what the gaol should be used for as Australia moved from frontier outpost to modern country.