HIDEOUT : HM Prison Beechworth

 

The Second edition to the hideout series:

HM Prison Beechworth

Beechworth Prison, An infamous construction around Beechworth, Victoria, was opened in 1864 and closed in 2004. Serving as a correctional facility for up to 132 inmates. As former locals of this region we knew this building quite well.
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Though closed for quite a few years, the building itself is still intact.

 The Beechworth Gaol is one of nine Victorian prisons designed on the radiating 'panopticon' principle which had proved an efficient, cost-effective design for easy surveillance of prisoners by allowing guards to watch over a large area from a central observation point.^[1]

So straight away you notice the barbed wire on the walls which is a good thing, with zombies more that if they somehow managed to climb these enourmous granite walls as the majority of takes on zombies believe they have very very very limited feeling in terms of pain and would instead get caught in the wire, Long enough for you to deal with them. 

The entrances (pictured below) are quite well protected and the below images are representative of the rest of the prison's entrances. These are solid iron and have numerous locks on the larger gates, then large wooden and steel plated doors behind. Plenty of coverage from the approaching zombie hordes.

 

Pictured below is the main courtyard of the prison, the second from the front. As you can see there is pleanty of space, wide open space which is a good thing when talking of zombies. Again you can see the barbed wire atop the walls and that they are of a good height, out of the reach of a zombie who doesn't possess a large ladder or bear grylls-like climbing abilities.

 

The below pictures further illustrate the walls and watch towers which are ditributed quite evenly across the prison. Plenty of murder holes to survey the area around the prison without beeing seen, at a height that is again out of reach of the zombie. The town, Beechworth, in 2006 had a population of only 2,645^2 so this is obviously safer than larger cities in terms of sheer numbers.

 One of the major problems however is how one gains access to the inside of the prison in the first place, with all doors barred quite substantially this is not an option. Because though zombies may not feel the razor sharp barbed wire, a human sure as hell will, one could try the old blanket and ladder method but it's still quite risky due to the height of the walls. 

1-^ "HM Prison Beechworth - Sydney Rd". Global Retail and Trade. Retrieved 2 April 2012.

2^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Beechworth (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2007-10-01.

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