In fact, the natural landscape earned reputation as a "vast natural jail", wildly different to what you would see in present-day touristy Fremantle. So harsh was the land that "prisoners may escape the prison but could not get out of the prison yard," as a prison record puts it.

Some managed to make good their attempts and others ended up being recaptured and having some more years added to their sentences, or even being executed. The following are some of the dramatic escapes summed up from various sources, including the prison's website http://fremantleprison.com.

Shark Bay escape

The first escape was attempted by five prisoners taking part in a work party on Jan. 25, 1859, shortly after the convict establishment was completed. They slipped into the bushes, stole a dinghy in a nearby river, rowed past the Fremantle harbor lookout and out into the open sea.

Upon landing on Garden Island, they robbed a family, taking money, provisions, firearms and a compass. They managed to do this at will because the water police boat was busy ferrying Governor Kennedy to Rottnest Island where Comptroller-General Henderson was also holidaying.

The escapees stole the family's whaleboat. They had set out to sea heading north when the water police arrived at the island.

The escape artists were sighted and the ensusing chase took them 800 kilometers northward to Shark Bay.

After weeks of both the convicts and dedicated policemen being exposed to rough seas and scroching sun, gotcha! But police found only four of them.

Later the remaining escapees admitted to have killed the missing one because he had drunk more than his share of fresh water.

Subsequent trials found them guilty of murder and armed robbery. One was hanged and others had their sentences extended by many more years.

Trio escape artists

A daring escape was made on May 29, 1867 after convict William Graham managed to get duplicate keys to unlock his cell and freed his mates Thomas Scott and George Morris. They stripped leather belts from machinery in the prison workshop and used them to scale the perimeter wall during a heavy rain. Their escape was not known until the next morning.

They survived by stealing food and rifles from local residents as they roamed farmlands northeast of Perth until trackers located them. Morris was shot and killed during the night shootout, while his friends managed to flee and continued their crime spree to support themselves.

A few weeks later, police and aboriginal trackers spotted them in a hut in southwest Kojonup. The whole affair cast the shame on the whole police force after the cornered Scott and Graham managed to survive the raid and flee once again albeit wounded.

Graham dragged himself 16 kilometers through the bush, bleeding from his right arm and foot. Unable to bear all the harship and fearing he would die, he surrendrered to a shepherd.

Scott was recaptured a few days later near the Blackwood River. Graham and Scott were taken back to the prison and police officers involved were fired in the culmination of a manhunt the local media described as a "disgraceful affair".

Moondyne Joe

Moondyne Joe, whose real name was Joseph Bolitho Johns, is probably the most celebrated escape artist from Fremantle prison for his many innovative escape attempts, which embarrassed governor John Hampton.

An animal tracker, Joe was sent to prison as a convict in 1853 and was soon granted his ticket of leave. He was returned to jail for three years for stealing a horse while working as an anmal tracker near Toodyay in 1861.

Only four years later, Moondyne was he returned to the establishment for stealing and killing an ox. Since then he twice attempted escapes, was recaptured and had six years added to his sentence. But the Fremantle and Perth press, critical of the unpopular Governor Hampton, questioned the wisdom of adding more years to his now lengthy sentence.

Embarrassed by Joe's repeated escapes, Hampton ordered the escape artist's cell be reinforced with wood panelling and long nails. Inspecting Joe's newly reinforced cell, the governor told him,"If you get out again, I'll forgive you."

In 1867, Joe escaped again after he managed to dig a hole through the prison wall with his axe while he was put to work breaking rocks. After two year on the loose, he was recaptured in 1869 when he broke into a wine cellar in the Swan Valley. He was captured by a group of policemen arriving at the cellar for a social drink.

Joe was returned to the prison and became a free man again in 1873.

Some more dramatic escapes were made between the 1860s and 1870s, when Governor Hampton reintroduced dreaded forms of punishment including flogging, a policy which met strong public opposition.

While police were busy chasing Moondyne Joe, Graham, Scott and Morris on the run in 1867, the maximum security prison was embarrassed by the breakout of eight convicts. Most were recaptured, one drowned and another sentenced to death by hanging for attacking the pursuing police.

A very famous mass-escape happened again in 1876, involving six jailed activists of the Fenian underground movement, or Irish Republican Brotherhood - a political society resisting British rule in Ireland in the 1860s.

The plot involved Fenian secret agents and Fenian Brotherhood members from America. After more than a year of sophisticated operations, the convicts managed to escape to the US after they were smuggled on board the waiting legendary Catalpa ship disguised as a whaling boat.

So perhaps now you can plan your own grand escape, from your daily routine.

- Pandaya

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