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HM Prison Fairlea

Australian female prison in Victoria, Australia

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ5635175 ↗
Source-derived summary

HM Prison Fairlea was an Australian female prison located on Yarra Bend Road in the suburb of Fairfield, Victoria, Australia. The first all-female prison in Victoria, it was built on the site of the Yarra Bend Asylum, with remnants of the walls and gates being used in the layout of the prison. In 1982 a deliberately lit fire led to the deaths of three inmates. The rebuilt and expanded prison reopened in 1986. After closing in 1996 due to privatisation of sections of the prison system, Fairlea was demolished and the site converted to parkland.

Site

In the 1950s, the Victorian Government committed to building the state's first all-female prison. The site chosen on National Park Road (now Yarra Bend Road), Fairfield included the grounds and structures of the former Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum and Fairhaven Venereal Disease Clinic, many of which were converted for prison use. Prior to the opening of Fairlea, female prisoners had been held in a small section Pentridge Prison. Fairlea's grounds and buildings were more spacious than those of the female unit at Pentridge; however many of the buildings were unsatisfactory, dating from the site's time as an asylum in the 1860s.

Notable inmates

The Fairlea Five Vietnam War protesters: Jean McLean, Joan Coxsedge, Irene Miller, Jo Maclaine-Cross and Chris Cathie

Heather Parker – Office of Corrections worker who aided the escape of prisoners Peter Gibb and Archie Butterly in 1993.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “HM Prison Fairlea” as australian female prison in Victoria, Australia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1986, 1996, 1993—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Prison, Fairlea and Australian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as australian female prison in Victoria, Australia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5635175. Authority coordinates are -37.791, 145.011. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1986, 1996 and 1993.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “HM Prison Fairlea”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow HM Prison Fairlea primary sources, HM Prison Fairlea archive and Prison research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “HM Prison Fairlea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.