Heritage walking tour of Pentridge: its dark past, neglected present and rich future.

Pentridge is currently undergoing a regeneration – the convicts and cutthroats are gone in favour of cafes, cinemas and apartment blocks. Pentridge was decommissioned in 1997 and the powerhouse of punitive reform has been left to sleep; deathly quiet and still - the bluestones lie heavy and cold. Some say let sleeping dogs lie, however in 2013 the Shayher Group bought the land and in the interim have begun to redevelop the site into a luxury village. As we walk around the current site and juxtapose the new with the old we will learn from the people who frequented Pentridge. Their stories are personal, they and the buildings that contained them are a form of living history, a dark history, one of pain and torment. The question is how should these stories be remembered? Can they be immemorialised by, and with, the newly proposed redevelopment? Is Pentridge part of the dark tourism trail? What are the ramifications of dismantling the bricks? Do we lose the stories?