Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Port Arthur, Tasmania

"The Port Arthur Historic Site - home to prisoners, military personnel and free settlers. From 1833 Port Arthur was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian Colonies. By 1840 more than 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived at Port Arthur, which by this time was a major industrial settlement." quote from the Port Arthur Historic Site Visitor Guide.


We spent almost a day at Port Arthur, visiting the historical buildings and learning the history behind them. Once we purchased our entry ticket, we were given a deck card each.  Each card represents a convict and his background/story.




Structure of The Penitentiary - four storey high. The two lower floors contained 136 cells for 'prisoners of bad character'. The top floor provided space for 480 better behaved convicts to sleep in bunks. Imagine just how small each cell was and having to house more than 600 prisoners in this one building.

St David's Church

The Church
"The Church represents the important role of religion in convict reform at Port Arthur. Much of the decorative stonework and joinery in the church was crafted by boys from the Point Puer Boys' Prison." Point Puer Boy's Prison was located off the main island, which can be reach by a short ferry ride and served as a juvenile reformatory.

Below left to right: prison cells and workstation for shoemakers. Most of the prisoners left Port Arthur rehabilitated and skilled, some as blacksmiths, shoemakers or shipbuilders.

The courtroom

"On Sunday 28 April 1996, a tragic chapter was added to Port Arthur's history when a gunman took the lives of 35 people and physically wounded 19 others in and around the Port Arthur Historic Site." One of the staff briefly mentioned this tragic incident during the ferry ride and out of curiosity I read the history from here - worth reading it.

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