Boggo Road Gaol – A Female Perspective – Mary Ann Sullivan

A Female Perspective – Mary Ann Sullivan

Perhaps one of the most frequent visitors to HM Prison (Females) Brisbane (later known as 2 Division Boggo Road Gaol)  In fact, she easily accounts for one of the largest number of convictions ever seen in Queensland history.

The Telegraph Newspaper, Saturday 10 Jun 1911, Page 2

Mary Ann Sullivan

Native of:  Ireland

Aged: 59

Height: 5 feet 2 inches

Weight:  8 stone 2 ounces

Build:  Medium

Complexion:  Sallow

Hair:  Brown

Eyes:  Blue

Markings:   Tattoo cross over three strokes, a male figure, “Brisbane Charlie Rund, 1877” right arm; Tattooed left shoulder, “Jack Roache”; ears pierced.

Conviction:  Drunkenness

(*correct at the time of her last conviction)


Perhaps one of the most frequent visitors to HM Prison (Females) Brisbane (later known as 2 Division Boggo Road Gaol)   In fact, she easily accounts for one of the largest number of convictions seen in Queensland History.

Mary Ann Sullivan was an addict.   She had a severe addiction to Alcohol.  This meant that she would do anything that she needed to do to feed her habit.

Cairns Post Newspaper, Wednesday 3 January 1917, page 4

Her first conviction was in 1876 at just 18 years of age where she was sent to the Fortitude Valley Gaol; her last that we have discovered was in 1917 her 201st conviction.   The range of offences varies.  But mostly for Drunkenness.    It is impossible to cover her vast criminal career here.   We have chosen one year 1912, to simply shine some light on this complicated woman.

For two months and twenty-eight days in 1912 Boggo Road Gaol had the presence of fifty year old Irish prisoner Mary Ann Sullivan. Mary was no stranger to the life of crime her first encounter this year with was on the 11th of January tried at North Brisbane for the offence of loitering with the sentence of one month imprisonment. With only eleven days between when she was released and when she re-entered Mary was charged with drunkenness on the 22nd of February; and served fourteen more days within the walls of Boggo Road Gaol. Her journey had not ended yet accumulating another fourteen days for the crime of loitering on the 21st of March. Sullivan’s final conviction for the year was on the 16th of April for a further one month imprisonment for the offence of drunkenness.

After her release in 1917,  Mary Ann Sullivan simply disappears from the system. Do you know what happened to Mary Ann?

HM Prison (Females) Brisbane 1916


A sincere thank you to everyone that supported Queensland Women’s Week and International Women’s Day at Boggo Road Gaol!  We hope you have enjoyed celebrating through our immersive history tours and written stories about some of Boggo Road Gaol’s most infamous female personalities.

This article was contributed by Researcher Anique Sanders as part of the ongoing research program for Boggo Road Gaol Pty Ltd. The aim of the program is to bring to light and share articles relating to Boggo Road for the purposes of review and study. Do you have a story to share or something you would like us to know about? You can contact the research team here

 

 

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