Museum highlights the horrors of gaol time in Dubbo

Visitors need only spend a few minutes at the Old Dubbo Gaol, especially on a dank sort of afternoon, to gain some idea of the horrendous conditions suffered by inmates.

Not that the gaol, in some ways, is so old. It only ceased full operation, right in the city's main street, in 1966 - well within the lifetime of quite a few of us.

At least by then there was no reason to use the gaol's gallows. Ronald Ryan, the last Australian prisoner to be legally executed, had been hung at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison the year before.

I'd been to Port Arthur and Sarah Island - God help those who ended up in that hellhole on Tasmania's wet and rugged West Coast - so I was hardly surprised by the cruelty meted out in the Old Dubbo Gaol.

But I was surprised to find that the institution had been used only a bit more than half a century ago.

These days it is used as a museum that vividly shows the horrors perpetrated on those unlucky enough to hit the wrong side of the law in earlier days - complete with grisly re-enactments of deeds such as administering the noose.

The place is laid out much as it was in operating times, with men's and women's accommodation quarters, exercise yards and, of course, well within sight of virtually all occupants, the dreaded gallows.

Especially worth pondering over is the gaol's audio-visual display. The story of the hangman with no face will lift the hairs on the back of viewers' necks.

Also, while in Dubbo, make sure to visit the Western Plains Cultural Centre.

It's the prime artistic venue in this part of NSW and features significant permanent collections as well as regularly hosting a series of challenging temporary exhibitions.

Permanent exhibitions include People Places Possessions, a series of stories about Dubbo, with particular focus on pastoral landscapes, family ambitions and the stories within street facades.

Streets such as Cobra are packed seemingly cheek-by-jowl by good-quality motor inns such as the Cascades, where I'm staying for a few nights.

It's comfortable enough and comes with complimentary wireless internet, though the connection is a bit slow.

What lifts it above the pack is the on-site restaurant, Bellotti's, where Monica and Ashleigh Bellotti have put together an excellent Italian menu using a range of Central-Western ingredients such as Grassland poultry from Wellington, Breakout River lamb from Cowra, High Valley cheeses from Mudgee and very local eggs from Mother Clucker.

The lamb rump is sensational - moist, flavoursome, certainly not overcooked, and served with capanato, a Sicilian eggplant dish, and salad greens. It matches perfectly a glass of good red, just as the fried gnocci does a glass of Italian prosecco.

And do yourself a favour for breakfast. Drive the couple of blocks to the Short Street Store Café, which is housed in a seemingly very ordinary old weatherboard cottage.

The food is anything but ordinary, as exemplified by the poached eggs, served with avocado, homemade tomato relish, just the best home-baked beans and crisply toasted sourdough.

What a delicious way to start the day.