Yatala Labor Prison
Rear of the prison complex
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| Location | Peter Brown Drive, Northfield, South Australia |
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| Coordinates | 34°50′40″S 138°37′43″E / 34.84444°S 138.62861°ECoordinates: 34°50′40″S 138°37′43″E / 34.84444°S 138.62861°E |
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Maximum security |
| Capacity | 468 |
| Opened | 1854 |
| Closed | Currently active |
| Managed by | South Australian, Department for Correctional Services |
Yatala Labour Prison is a high-security men's prison located in the north-eastern part of the northern suburb Northfield in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1854 to enable prisoners to work at the creek, quarrying rock for roads and construction. Originally known as The Stockade it acquired its current name from a local Aboriginal word.
The prison has been expanded many times but still has functioning buildings that date to the 1850s. It remains Adelaide's main male prison and although it was scheduled to be closed by 2011, it has remained open due to the Global Financial Crisis.
Yatala prison, originally called The Stockade, was named after the cadastral Hundred of Yatala. The word is presumed to refer to the flooded state of the plain either side of Dry Creek after heavy rain It is known as a labour prison by virtue of its vast industries complex and the use of convict labour in construction.
It is sited in Adelaide's northern suburb of Northfield, 10 kilometres (6 mi) north of Adelaide's central business district and between Grand Junction Road and Dry Creek. The prison sits on an escarpment of the Para Fault Block overlooking the Adelaide plains. Dry Creek, a watercourse usually dry in summer, flows through a deep gully immediately north of the prison boundary. It features outcrops of exposed pre-Cambrian rocks that were once extensively quarried as part of prison activity.
For the first five years of South Australian settlement there was no permanent prison. Prisoners were kept locked in irons onboard HMS Buffalo until its sailing in 1837, and in temporary jails subsequently. 1841 saw the first permanent prison built in Adelaide, with the Adelaide Gaol on the banks of the River Torrens, the building of which severely strained the new colony's finances.
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