PORT ARTHUR

4^th February, 2014

After a quiet night at our freecamp at Dunalley Hotel we head south once more to the convict historic site of Port Arthur.

The Port Arthur convict station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp using convict labour to produce sawn logs for government projects.  From 1833 it was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from al the Australian colonies.  It was much more than a prison – it was a complete community and home to military personnel and free settlers.  The convicts worked at farming and industries, producing a large range of resources and materials.  Many men were broken by the discipline and punishment but some left Port Arthur rehabilitated and skilled as blacksmiths, shipbuilders and shoemakers.  By 1840 more than 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived at Port Arthur.  With the end of convict transportation to Van Diemen’s Land in 1853 the site became an institution for aging and physically and mentally ill convicts.  The settlement finally closed in 1877 and many of its buildings were dismantled or destroyed by bushfires.  The area gradually became the centre of a small town renamed Carnarvon in an attempt to erase the hated convict stain.  However first-hand stories of convict life proved to be a drawcard and tourists began visiting the settlement until finally in 1920 it became Port Arthur once again and became a major historical tourist destination for Tasmania.  A tragic chapter was added to Port Arthur’s history on Sunday the 28^th April 1996, when a lone gunman took the lives of 35 people and wounded 19 others in and around the Port Arthur Historic Site.  A memorial garden has been created around the shell of the old Broad Arrow Café where many were killed as a place of remembrance.

We wander through the very interesting and informative Information Centre before heading down to the jetty for a short ferry trip around Mason Cove.  We cruise by the Isle of the Dead where around 1100 people are buried.  It is the final resting place for military and civil officers, their wives and children as well as convicts.  The most common causes of death among the convicts were from industrial accidents and respiratory disease.  At Point Puer we pass by the Boy’s Prison which operated from 1834 to 1849.  It was the first purpose-built juvenile reformatory in the British Empire.  Juvenile offenders were separated from the older convicts to protect them from criminal influence.  Most of the boys were aged between 14 and 17 but there were some younger boys – the youngest being 9 years old.  Point Puer was renowned for its regime of stern discipline and harsh punishment but all the boys received an education and some were given the opportunity of trade training.

Back on shore we joined an Introductory Tour of Port Arthur.

Our Tour Guide at Port Arthur

Then we were let free to explore on our own.  The building that dominates the site is The Penitentiary.

The Penitentiary

Once used as a flour mill and granary the building was converted into a four storey Penitentiary when the mill failed to supply adequate flour for the settlement.  The next building we investigated was the Asylum where mentally unbalanced convicts were treated. 

The Asylum

As it was lunchtime we had a quick bite to eat at the Museum café inside the Asylum before continuing to explore the site.  Adjoining the Asylum was the Separate Prison

Farm Overseers cottage on the left - Separate Prison entrance on the right

which was designed to deliver a new method of punishment by reforming the convicts through isolation and contemplation.  Convicts were locked up in single cells for 23 hours each day.  Here they ate, slept and worked with just one hour per day allowed for exercise, alone, in a high-walled yard.  They were not allowed to speak and communication with the guards was through hand or whistle commands.

Wayne and Wok get a personalised tour through the Separate Prison

Their only respite from this inhumane treatment was at church on Sunday when for two hours in the morning and evening they were allowed to go to the chapel which was attached to the Separate Prison.  Here the convicts were placed standing in separate boxes facing the pulpit.

Wok can just see out of his box in the chapel

The only person they could see was the Minister as he delivered his sermon

Wayne preaches fire and brimstone from the pulpit

but by all accounts the singing of hymns was a highlight.  And why wouldn’t it be if it was the only time you could use your voice?  Is it any wonder that many of these convicts ended up in the Asylum!

A short walk up the hill was the Pauper’s Depot

Wayne and Wok wander through the Pauper's Depot

and the Hospital where common conditions such as respiratory or rheumatic ailments contracted from working outdoors and sleeping in cold cells and wet clothing were treated.

The hospital

View of the Asylum and Separate Prison from the Hospital

At the top of the hill was Smith O’Brien’s Cottage.

Smith O'Brien's Cottage

This cottage housed one of Port Arthur’s most famous political prisoners – Irish Protestant Parliamentarian William Smith O’Brien.  Transported for life from Britain, he was sent to Port Arthur after an incident on Maria Island. 

We follow the pathway down the hill to the Senior Military Officer’s Quarters and Guard Tower

The Guard's Tower

past the Law Courts

The Law Courts on the right

and along a road behind the Penitentiary where a lovely rock wall with steel gates

Wok and Wayne at the gateway to the Commandant's House

leads us up to the Commandant’s House.

The Commandant's House

The Commandant was Port Arthur’s most senior official.  A residence befitting this rank and position was erected in 1833 and housed five of Port Arthur’s ten Commandants.  The building was extended several times and was also used as a private guest house when the convicts had gone.

Entrance hallway in the Commandant's House

We were getting pretty tired at this stage but we had one more area to explore.  We walked up the hill to the Accountant’s House and Parsonage

Accountant's House and Parsonage

and then on to the ruins of the 1837 convict built church.

The Church at Port Arthur

It was now pretty late in the afternoon and we managed to hitch a ride on a prison golf buggy.  The driver probably thought we looked pretty tuckered out and might just not make it to the exit before the site closed for the day.  We were just glad for the ride! 

It had been a great day wandering around the site and we were just as impressed this time around as we were in 1996 when we last visited.  A few weeks after us being in Port Arthur 35 innocent people lost their lives – it still brings chills to us to think that but for a blink in time we could have been caught up in that moment of madness.  The lives of those 35 people are now forever entwined into the history of Port Arthur …