Interview with Robert Martin [transcript] Interviewer: Peter Donovan

In late 1971 Robert Martin was sentenced to one week in Adelaide Gaol as a conscientious non-complier with the National Service Act. The week was spent in the New Building. In February 1972 he was sentenced to eighteen months for refusing to report at Keswick Barracks. The first ten days or so of this sentence were spent at Adelaide Gaol in No. 4 Yard. The interview was undertaken outside the main gate, sally port, visiting area, No. 3 Yard, exercise yard adjacent to the New Building, New Building, No. 4 Yard and the former garden. Rob found his first week in Adelaide Gaol bewildering and finds it difficult to recall detail. He recalls his admission, visitors, daily routines, the food, the boredom in No. 4 Yard where inmates were not required to work, and working in the garden. He did not find Adelaide Gaol as bad as he had thought which may have been due to the preferential treatment he received due to the sympathy of many of the officers and inmates. He concludes that his time in Gaol made him a stronger person.

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