Chris Anemaat on telling stories at Dubbo's most grisly attraction, the Old Dubbo Gaol

"It's getting on to be like a real prison sentence - with all the positives and none of the negatives of course," he said.

It was Chris's love of acting that initially landed him a career at the gaol. A friend from Dubbo theatre group Wesley House Players was already working at the gaol and had started a "theatrical program" - invited to join, Chris leapt at the opportunity for some paid acting work.

"She told me she needed some people who can help with some of the skits and reenactments. In my mind I was thinking 'you're going to pay me to act - that sounds fantastic'," he said.

"I was working at Video Ezy as well so I'd just come in here and there on weekends and get dressed up and pretend to be a prisoner and act out these little skits."

Of course, Chris wasn't in character the whole time he was on site - he also helped out on the front counter and had a chance to explore the grounds and look through the archives.

"I'd go into a storage room and there'd be files everywhere - you wouldn't even be able to walk in. So I started to look at them and I got really interested in the stories of the prisoners," he said.

"So I carved a bit of time for myself ordering all of that and going through the history and that's how I started out on the historical research side of things."

Once he started down the rabbithole of records, researching the stories of prisoners locked up at the gaol became a passion project for Chris.

When he wasn't in costume or slinging video rentals, he spent hours in his own time scrolling through thousands of historic news stories and police gazettes for mentions of the gaol.

"With my own money I ordered these CD-ROMs with digitised police gazettes from the 1870s, 80s and 90s. I would sit here at the jail and take it home and go through page by page until 10 or 11pm month after month," he said.

"It was really exciting. There was so much that could be found that was just waiting to be discovered. I kind of felt a bit like Indiana Jones pouring through the records. It wasn't just work to me."

Functioning as a prison for almost a century from 1887 to 1966, the walls of Old Dubbo Gaol hold many stories and have been home to many characters.

"All of these weird and wonderful and horrible people have found their way here and to the site," said Chris.

"The thing that was interesting to me was that a lot of the people who came here were from a lower socio-economic background and have never really had a voice before or had their story told - whether they deserve to have their story told is a question in and of itself."

Through exhibitions and tours and reenactments, staff at the gaol bring the stories of former prisoners to life. Some are gruesome, some are tragic, some are spooky and some inspire hope - but it's the funny stories Chris enjoys sharing with the public the most.

"There was a prisoner by the name of John Lawrence Barton who was in and out of jail for forgery and was incredibly talented - he was an artist and a musician. But his addiction to alcohol led him into a life of crime," said Chris.

"My favourite story about him was when he smuggled gold out of Dubbo Gaol. Because he was such an artistic person and very talented he was put in charge of the gaol's bookbinding department, and just before his release he crafted this incredible, beautiful book."

"He sent it to the comptroller general of prisons with a note asking if he would be able to keep the book when he was released. It was sent back with a note saying that of course he could keep it."

"Later, he was caught at the pub where people were watching him pick at the book to remove diamond shaped pieces of gold which he had hidden in the spine of the book. Obviously he was sent right back to jail."

Stories about daring escapes are also crowd pleasers - says Chris.

"A man named Frederick Clifford was arrested in 1896 for breaking into hotels all around town and stealing money. He was put on remand waiting for his trial and managed to escape from the remand yard using a grappling hook."

"He was walking out on the street when he was spotted by the jailer who had a house right next to the jail and was on his verandah in his dressing gown and slippers having a cup of tea and chatting to his son."

"Seeing the escapee he sent his son away to raise the alarm and gave chase - much to the delight of the Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate who had a field day reporting on the jailer in his pyjamas chasing after a prisoner."

Over a decade working at the gaol Chris has been able to see a lot of changes at the site - from an attraction run on "the smell of an oily rag" to one that's now a well-oiled machine.

He says being able to see projects all the way through from conception to implementation has been really rewarding.

"When you care about a place and are really invested in a place you can see the potential for so many things and when you do get those wins it feels so much more special because you've really thought about it and really know how important it is," he said.

"I'm incredibly lucky that I just kind of fell into my dream job. From the work that I did as a casual just doing the performances to then doing the historic research."

While Chris's role now mostly involves researching, curating exhibitions and managing artefacts - from time to time he still puts on the costumes and takes part in the skits that his passion for the historic site were born out of.

"I'm busy these days with exhibition development and that sort of thing but it is fun to put a costume on and run around and pretend to escape or pretend to be a guard and yell at people. It changes the day around," he said.

"In the end we're doing really important work here but in a lot of senses the gaol is a tourist attraction. So to be able to be paid to make an idiot of yourself or to insult people is really good fun."

"It's a great job. The team here is really close knit because we all see the value of the place and how important the place is and how lucky we are to work in a 19th century gaol."

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