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Over the past couple of weeks here at the Mercury, reporters have been writing a lot about a proposal to build a jail at Kembla Grange.
This has been of great interest to our readers: thousands of residents have already joined a campaign against this jail and we’re still awaiting information from the government. As we follow the developments, you can be assured that there will be many more jail stories to come.
That’s right – jail stories. J. A. I. L.
I spell it out because, every now and again when we post stories which use the word jail, we get a couple of Facebook pedants coming out of the woodwork to tell us how wrong we are.
“Mercury get your spelling correct, in Australia it’s gaol,” we get told.
But actually, dear readers, in Australia the preferred, recommended and widely accepted spelling is jail.
This spelling has apparently been in use in some form in Australia since the early 1800s. It’s also been used in Britain for over 200 years.
It wasn’t widely used here until the late 20th century, but for about four decades now it’s been the accepted spelling.
At the Mercury, we use a Fairfax style guide, which dictates that reporters should write jail. The ABC has a similar guide, which also recommends jail.
I’m not exactly sure what spelling the NSW Government – which has proposed the Kembla Grange prison – prefers, because the formerly simple jail has been bureaucratised into being a Correctional Centre instead.
But the Macquarie Dictionary says jail is preferred – unless you’re talking about the historic name of a place, like the Old Melbourne Gaol.
And look, if personally, you feel you’d like to spell the word gaol, that’s okay too – we won’t come after you on social media because you’re not wrong, just a bit out of step and old fashioned.