Museums and galleries
General Information
The Corrective Services NSW Museum is located at Cooma in the Monaro region of New South Wales. Adjacent to it stand Cooma Correctional Centre and other historic buildings.
The museum showcases the History of NSW Corrections since 1788. It contains information, displays and artefacts from convict days to the present.
Minimum security inmates are the tour guides.
There is wheelchair access to and throughout the museum.
Opening Times
Monday - Saturday 9:00am to 3:00pm
Closed Sunday
Public Holidays
Please call (02) 6452 5974 to check for opening times
Closed Christmas Day
Address
1 Vagg Street
Cooma NSW 2630
Telephone: (02) 6452 5974
Click here to view its location in Cooma
Background
Starting out in one room in 1989 the museum moved into the decommissioned Cooma Correctional Centre in 1998. When the centre re-opened in 2002, two adjacent Corrective Services houses were converted into a new museum space and opened by the Commissioner of Corrective Services on 25 August 2005.
Highlights of the collection include an original portable cell, restraint devices (e.g. manacles and leg irons), convict and prisoner clothing, tin wear manufactured within prison industries, security equipment (e.g. riot shields and batons), contraband (e.g. inmate weapons, escape devices and tattoo guns), artefacts from the notorious Katingal gaol, photographs, videos, oral histories, and film documentation.
Museum Photos
This photo selection focuses on selected items in the museum collection. The museum brings together historical objects from correctional centres across the State of NSW to aid in their preservation, display and marketing. The collection has significant heritage value and contributes to an understanding of Australia's cultural history as a penal colony.
Boom Gate Gallery
Long Bay Correctional Complex has a long tradition of creating significant inmate artwork. Inmates continue to practice art at the complex, with many pieces available for display and sale at the Boom Gate Gallery. You are encouraged to drop into the gallery just for a look.
