Information

Prison Farms had been established at Palen Creek, Numinbah and Stone River in Queensland since the 1930s, and were utilised as places for low-security prisoners to serve out their sentences while learning some basic agricultural skills. The Queensland Prison’s Department bought this land from a local farmer and the Wacol Prison Farm opened there in 1959. Eight army huts were erected on the site as temporary accommodation for prisoners. The purpose of the farm was to provide prisoners nearing the end of their sentence with low security and work training towards release – training in trades, dairying and agriculture. Dairying was the main farming activity, and in 1960 about 56,000 gallons of milk were produced there, along with 65 tons of vegetables for consumption in the prisons and other State institutions. Next to the Prison Farm, on a local high point (the site of US 6th Army HQ in World War II), a training school for Prison Officers was commenced in temporary quarters during 1966. The Queensland Corrective Service Academy continues as the only training facility in Queensland and includes a pistol shooting range and training for the dog squad. The prison farm was closed in 1999. Initial plans to build two more prisons on this land were successfully resisted by local residents.

Citations

Queensland Government, Legislative Assembly Hansard 1961, p. 1308; Vicki Mynott, ‘Wacol, Wolston, Woogaroo (1823-2014), Vol 1’, Inala Heights: Richlands, Inala and Suburbs History Group Inc., 2014.

Image Citations

Wacol Prison Farm, Brisbane, August 1959. Queensland State Archives. Item ID1514562.

Map References

Qimagery. Greater Brisbane 1960. Scale: 1:16,000.