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1 Gaol Boggo Road
1972 - 1992

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1974 image of 1 Division

By 1972, major changes were underway with the 1 Division site at Boggo Road.
A new white besser brick gaol was built surrounding the older 1 Division with the older buildings being demolished piece by piece. The fist to go was C Wing which was used as the punishment Wing in the final years of the old Division.

C Wing housed many of the men that were unsuitable to mix with the general population. Many had a mental illness.
As the old Wings made way for the new Division, security gaps were plugged when they appeared.

Cells in the new 1 Division opened to their own exercise yards and prisoners now ate in general dining rooms located near the kitchen instead of their own cells during the time of the early Division.
Prisoners also now had TV viewing in the yards (in both 1 and 2 Gaols) and around 15 hours a day out of their cells which was more than double the old days.
A new remand section was located to the left of the New Divisions main Gates

Image showing the main Gate entrance of 1 Division with F tower and punishment cells bottom right of picture
At the rear you can see the Women's Prison

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Whiskey and Other Problems

In 1973, A nightclub in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley called the 'Whiskey Au Go Go' was firebombed.
15 people died in the ensuing blaze and the 2 men convicted of the crime, John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch were housed in 1 Gaol.
The Prison Comptroller instructed these men were to be treated as 'special' prisoners. Both were placed in the old B Wing condemned cells at the entrance to the old Wing which was yet to be demolished mainly because these cells were considered secure and that nothing could be passed to the prisoners. During the day, the men were escorted through the tunnel to 2 Gaol where they spent the day in their own secure yards.

Items were infact passed to the prisoners and resulted in Finch and Stuart swallowing 'wire crosses' that required surgery to be removed from their upper digestive tract. Finch also claimed he bit off the lower joint of his left middle finger.
Boggo Road Superintendent Roy Stephenson kept the finger and crosses on the mantle in his office in jars.

1 Gaol had at least one Black Peter cell which is covered elsewhere in this website.
 

In 1974, 2 Gaol became the maximum security division, leaving 1 Gaol for sentenced prisoners and the remand section.
 

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The McSweeney Breakout

One story that should be told is of a Man by the name of Harold McSweeney.
Five Prisoners including McSweeney and Jason Nixon.
 (Jason also in 1997 escaped from Sir David Longlands with Postcard Bandit, BJ Abbott)
Dragging the 2 drivers from a Garbage Truck and with Harry doing the driving, they proceeded to smash the truck through the front gate of 1 Division and down past the Prison's Administration Centre (now Dutton Park Police Station) and off towards Nelson Street.
 

Massive damage from the garbage truck that rammed through the Gates

Most of the 5 escapee's were caught directly, but  Harry made off sweet.
He robbed a couple of banks whilst on the run and eventually after a run in with Police in Toowoomba in a stolen car and on a dirt bike, he gave himself up to Channel 7's Frank Warrick fearful that the Police would shoot first and ask the questions later.. Harry walked out of the bush wearing a black outfit including a nice cut-off jacket, it was quite a sight on the News that night and Frank Warrick's most memorable moment in his career as a Channel 7 Journo.
 

The remains of the garbage truck

In 92, Harry was facing the Brisbane Supreme Court  for the robberies he pulled off whilst on the run and with the cuffs off during a search, he made another break at freedom and jumped on a packed bus in busy George Street in Brisbane.
Holding a fake handgun made from balsa wood he pressured the bus driver to 'get it moving' and a Prison Officer shot Harry in the head.
That Prison Officer was dead a year later from suicide due to regret and death threats.
A sad ending all around.

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