Plan of the Fortitude Valley police station, c1903

Plan of the Fortitude Valley police station, c1903. Queensland Police Museum

Her Majesty’s Prison for Women opened in October 1903 and was the first purpose built prison for women in Queensland. It replaced the women’s prison at Toowoomba and smaller lock-up facilities at Fortitude Valley. The latter was used to hold prisoners serving sentences of less than one month, those awaiting trial, or those being transferred to Toowoomba. The new Fortitude Valley facility was erected in 1889. It comprised four ordinary cells measuring 8 x 12 feet, rooms for bathing, storage, cooking and two yards. Two punishment cells 8 x 10 feet were erected in 1891 being ‘urgently required for enforcing obedience and discipline’. The division of rooms and inmates in new facilities was based on the British penal model and believed to limit the spread of vice and influence within prison walls, an especially important concern when it came to prostitution.