IN THE hours before he died, as the sun rose on his final day, Ronald Ryan unfurled some toilet roll and used it as an impromptu notepad. He wrote a series of letters, some to the authorities protesting his innocence and one to his daughters saying his conscience was clear.

When the time came, he had a nip of whisky and walked calmly to the gallows. On that February 1967 morning in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, Ryan became the last person in Australia to be executed, hung within the grounds of the notorious Pentridge prison.

He’d already escaped Pentridge’s foreboding bluestone walls once and likely would have again given the opportunity. Almost 50 years later, Aimie Hunter, like she did most nights, was trying to get back into Pentridge.

“If I came home late at night it was kind of eerie walking home. It’s really dark and there’s nothing inviting about it,” she told news.com.au

“Ned Kelly was buried near our apartment and Chopper Read did time here. There’s a watchtower all boarded up. It was really creepy to be honest, it was not cool.”

GRIM AND IMPOSING

Ms Hunter, who lived in Pentridge for two years, is one of an increasing number of Australians calling former prisons home. Her apartment, newly built, stood within the jail grounds just meters from the walls that Heritage Victoria describe as “grim and imposing”.

Pentridge isn’t the only prison trying to find a new role once all the prisoners have left. Today, Beechworth jail goes up for auction with an expected price tag upwards of $2 million.

The heritage-listed jail has housed some of Victoria’s most notorious criminals, including slain Melbourne underworld figure Carl Williams and members of the Kelly Gang and family. Planning approval has been granted for 20 housing allotments on the site in northeastern Victoria.

In Sydney, the State Government has indicated Long Bay prison in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, whose notable inmates have included Bra Boy Jai Abberton and white-collar criminal Rodney Adler, could be closed and replaced with a new prison in the city’s west.

“I think developers would be particularly interested in Long Bay,” Stephen Albin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute Australia, told news.com.au

Far from homebuyers being queasy about living on the grounds of an old prison, Mr Albin said developers would be lining up for the large plots of land close to trendy inner city suburbs.

“It’s an ideal location, there’s the seaside, it’s close to Maroubra which is growing and provides the perfect mix the property industry are looking for.”

“Back in the day it had a sewage outfall and the jail and no wanted to live there but things have moved on and you can use it as a way of reactivating an area.”

In Brisbane, the first of the planned new apartments on the former site of the former Boggo Rd jail, just outside the CBD, have already been snapped up. Developers promise that the new urban village whose “contemporary design will complement the jail’s historic fabric.”

The prison, which in contrast to Pentridge has warm red bricks, will be turned into the “marketplace” featuring “a cluster of authentic retailers”. But anybody hoping to turn a former cell block into their new home will be disappointed. While warehouses, with their wide open spaces, have been converted into apartments, prisons pose multiple challenges. Not the least being that solid cell walls don’t take kindly to be interfered with — be that by a prisoner keen to escape or a developer trying to install a fitted kitchen.

Conservationists will be hoping for a better outcome at Boggo Rd than in Pentridge.

“Nearly 20 years have passed since Pentridge closed as a prison, and much of the site continues to languish thanks to a revolving door of developers, a lack of investment in heritage, and uninspiring design which isn’t responsive to the site,” said The National Trust’s senior community advocate, Felicity Watson, said she remained to be convinced.

‘A SCHMOZZLE’

“A promised museum still hasn’t been funded, while generic flats overlook half-demolished bluestone buildings,” she said.

Professor of environment and planning at RMIT, Michael Buxton, told news.com.au that few of the many ideas for the former prison buildings had come to fruition.

“There were various proposals for reuse, a hotel, conference centre, arts precinct but the most historic part has just sat there for a long time.”

“It’s been a schmozzle,” he said. “We’ve ended up with a worse development and the whole site looks terrible.”

Last year, conservationists reacted with horror as a developer was given the green light to demolish parts of the historic H division, where Mark “Chopper” Read could once be found, for an access road and new housing.

Future Estate are the new owners of a 3.7 hectare portion of Pentridge, which welcomed its first criminals in 1850, including the D division where Ryan was executed. The company said it aimed to start work on a new $1 billion residential development called Coburg Quarter and planned to turn the prison’s old laundry into a bar, boutique brewery and restaurant.

Managing director, Ben Anderson said they were mindful that promises about restoring the prison had been and broken.

“The precinct has been tainted with a disappointing past and as a result there are a lot of residents who have been taken for a ride,” he said. “We have a hard task of us to turn that sentiment around.”

GHOSTS

“We believe that actions speak louder than words so we’ll be delivering a number of key amenity assets upfront in order to build faith and trust that we are the right team to deliver everyone’s vision for the site.”

Ms Watson said she remained to be convinced about the success of jail redevelopments.

“It is very tempting to see sprawling prison complexes as a convenient solution to housing pressures, but they are complex cultural landscapes with painful, living histories.”

“If the NSW government is to prevent a similar situation at Long Bay jail, it is crucial to get the initial master planning right with appropriate and viable uses need to be found for heritage buildings.”

Prof Buxton said there were lots of excuses given as to why redevelopments of prisons had so often fallen wide of the mark.

“Prisons are seen to be particularly difficult,” he said. “But maybe it’s just that there’s a lot of ghosts in them.”