page_title: Newcastle Gaol Museum
section_title: Current use
hierarchical_section_title: Newcastle Gaol Museum / Current use
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Newcastle Gaol, inside before restoration commenced in 1962
context_page_description: The Newcastle Gaol Museum is a prison museum on Clinton Street in Toodyay, Western Australia, founded in 1962. The museum records the history of the serial escapee Moondyne Joe and his imprisonment in the "native cell".
context_section_description: In 1962, the gaol was restored as a museum by the Shire of Toodyay and the W.A. Tourist Bureau. Grants from the National Heritage Commission, matched by grants from the Shire of Toodyay have enabled the fabric of the building to be stabilized. The building is classified under the National Trust. The museum is now a recognised museum under the Museum Act, vested in the Shire of Toodyay. The Shire employs a professional museum curator who manages the gaol with the assistance of volunteers. The displays have constantly improved over the years and now include the Moondyne Joe Gallery and the "Native" Cell. The latter display contributed to a Heritage Council Award for Interpretation in 2013.
  The main exhibition space features temporary displays, including from time to time a courtroom scene. Other areas feature artefacts relating to daily life in the settler era. At the rear is a display of early agricultural machinery while across the road is the restored 1891 Police Stable, the 1907 Police Lock-Up and a one-hundred-year-old shearing shed relocated from further afield. A number of horse-drawn appliances and carts can be viewed at this site.
  In 1983 the museum received an award from the Museums Australia for Best Educational Programme.
caption: Old Newcastle Gaol, inside before restoration commenced in 1962
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