The Prison Inside a Baobab Tree: Australia's Dark Tourism Myth (10 Photos + 2 Videos)

Australia is home to some remarkable trees: Australian baobabs, or boabs (Adansonia gregorii), close relatives of the iconic giants found in Africa and Madagascar. With their swollen, bottle-like trunks and root-like branches, they give the illusion of growing upside down—a sight that has captivated travelers for generations.





But two specific trees near the towns of Wyndham and Derby in northwestern Australia draw visitors not just for their age (nearly 1,500 years old) or massive girth (up to 14.7 meters)—they are steeped in a chilling legend.



The Derby Boab Tree in 1960

According to local lore, police patrols escorting Indigenous prisoners to trial in Derby during the 1890s used the hollow trunks of these trees as makeshift holding cells. An opening was allegedly carved into the Wyndham tree, known as the "Hillgrove Lockup," creating a cavernous interior of about nine square meters that reportedly crammed in up to 30 people at a time. Anyone who didn't fit inside was chained outside to bolts driven directly into the trunk.

Myth vs. Reality





The Derby Boab Tree

Yet there is another side to the story. Most historians agree that the famous Prison Tree in Derby is little more than an urban legend—born of a misconception and fueled by decades of tourism promotion.



The Wyndham Boab Tree

Researchers Elizabeth Grant and Christine Harman traced the myth back to 1948. Artist Vlase Zanalis, fascinated by the boab trees, painted the specimen in Wyndham, which was indeed referred to as a prison tree at the time.



However, when the artwork was exhibited in Sydney, a report in the Albany Advertiser mistakenly identified it as the tree in Derby, complete with a story about it serving as a temporary lockup. The error stuck. Ever since, the Derby tree has been firmly cemented in the public mind as a prison tree, despite a total lack of historical documentation or contemporary accounts to back it up. In fact, even a detailed 1905 government report on the mistreatment of Indigenous prisoners makes no mention of the tree.



Furthermore, the Derby tree holds a far more significant—yet lesser-known—history. For the Nyikina people, boabs are sacred beings endowed with their own individual spirits. This particular tree was traditionally used as an ossuary, a resting place for ancestral remains.



In 1916, anthropologist Herbert Basedow discovered human remains inside the tree's hollow. Their current whereabouts remain unknown, with researchers still trying to determine whether they ended up in private or institutional collections.



Today, the Derby Prison Tree—a 1,500-year-old titan—is one of the region's major tourist attractions. It is protected under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 as a sacred site. Local authorities have officially acknowledged its cultural significance, and nearby signage now reflects both its infamous reputation as a prison tree and its sacred Indigenous heritage.



The tree is now fenced off to protect its trunk from vandals who carved their names into the bark for decades. An information pavilion near the entrance outlines the site's history. Tens of thousands of tourists are estimated to visit the site each year.



The "Hillgrove Lockup" in Wyndham stands along King River Road, south of town. Its history as a holding facility is backed by newspaper reports from the 1930s, though some historians express skepticism about those accounts as well. Today, it remains a popular roadside landmark. The tree's history is somewhat tangled; as late as 1966, press reports explicitly stated that it was the Wyndham boab—not the Derby tree—that was used to confine prisoners.