The military prison, Anglesea barracks, Hobart.

This paper presents selected, key results of a historical-archaeological investigation and conservation analysis ofa rare type ofconfinement facility in Australia: a military gaol or prison constructed in c.1848 and seemingly built on a British model used around the Empire at that time. It functioned as a gaol between 1849 and 1870. This type offacility has been previously little reported on and this relatively non-invasive fabric investigation ofa standing structure, with associated historical research, provides some preliminary exposure of this unusual confinement facility. The paper also presents a hypothesis about why the building was required and built in Hobart at that time and highlights, by limited comparative analysis, various institutional differences that were identified in this project between the treatment ofmilitary prisoners and contemporary civil prisoners.