From uncomfortable to comfortable: the adaptive reuse of Australian gaols

Penal colonies form an important historic cornerstone in colonial Australia, and therefore are considered part of Australia’s widely debated uncomfortable heritage. Over time, many incarceration facilities around Australia have become functionally obsolete and were decommissioned. In the last few decades, many of those decommissioned Australian gaols listed as heritage buildings have undergone adaptive reuse. They have been transformed from uncomfortable and shameful memories to community spaces or tourist attractions. Most of these gaols were adapted to museums that celebrate the dark history of the site, while in a few cases, preserved gaols were integrated with mixed-use and residential developments, reused as boutique hotels, event venues, theatres, or art schools. The aim in this paper is to critically discuss the underlying rationale for transforming heritage-listed Australian gaols, as representatives of ‘uncomfortableness’, to house contemporary functions for the public to use and embrace. How do such buildings that remind us of our shameful past find their place in contemporary society? Discussion of the literature relates to dark tourism both internationally and in Australia, such as ‘time’ as a strategy for forgetting, selective remembrance of a site’s negative memories, economic viability of reusing dark heritage for tourism, and the rarity value of historic buildings. Issues behind the unusual adaptations of ‘castles of shame’ into places of contemporary democratic society are identified, discussed and supported by actual examples.