Port Arthur

Many of the roads in Tassie are windy, there are just soooooo many hills. Because of this it takes longer to get to many places than we anticipated before we left home.

Port Arthur is an example of this. 90 or kilometres and it takes about and hour and half.

We decide to book a tour to go to Port Arthur. This included introductory tour of the Port Arthur site and a harbour cruise with a guided tour of The Isle of The Dead.
We had to be in Hobart by 8am to be picked up by the coach.
As we boarded the coach we were each handed a playing card and told to just hang on to them until we got there.

As the only driver in our little duo it was great to sit back and relax and let someone do the driving.

On the way we went through several small towns and villages.
One of these places was called Doo Town. Most of the houses in Doo Town had names.....
This'll Doo Me
Doo Us
Doo Us Too
XanaDoo
We Doo
Doo Drop Inn
Love Me Doo
Doo Nix
and last but not least in very large letters Doo F*#^k All

There are a number of geological attractions in the area.
Our first stop was Tasman's Arch

Followed by The Devil's Kitchen, so named, it is believed, because when viewed from the ocean side it has the water swirling around looks like it is boiling in a cauldron.

Port Arthur itself is a peninsula and is connected to another peninsula by a narrow spit of land called Eaglehawk Neck.
This is one of the reasons it was chosen as a penal site. The authorities had dogs on the spit, which would alert the guards to anyone attempting to cross it, and so any prisoner trying to escape would likely be caught.
So why didn't they swim? I hear you ask. Well, firstly many could not swim in those days, but more importantly they were told by the authorities that the waters on both sides were riddled with sharks. Perhaps they were because this water is now a sanctuary for gummy sharks!! If only they had know the sharks had no teeth!!
In spite of all that there were a few escape attempts. One bloke, called Cash Martin ended up in New Zealand as a policeman!
There is a famous story about another escape attempt where a bloke called Billy Hunt tried to disguise himself as a kangaroo and attempted to hop his way to freedom. The only problem was that the soldiers had such meagre rations that they had taken to hunting kangaroo to make stew. Poor old Billy ended up dropping the skin and yelling out "Don't shoot - it's only Billy Hunt".

Anyway Port Arthur....

Those playing cards? Well -there is a display section in the visitor centre where you find a series of boxes. Each box has a card on it's lid. The idea is you match your card to a box, lift the lid and discover the name and details of a convict, his crime and his sentence. You are then instructed to go through a particular colored door. this allows you to follow the convict's future - maybe through to a ticket of leave, maybe a harsher sentence for another crime..... A great idea! and fun!

As you leave the visitor centre to enter the site you are struck by how beautiful the site is.

The penitentiary

Here you can just see the commandant's house at the top of the hill on the right............

..........and this is the harbour below that hill

I guess the people who were there in it's heyday didn't see the beauty though. In it's 47 years of operation it way 12,000 men go through.
They milled flour - with the convicts in leg irons supplying the power. (the penitentiary began it's life as the mill).
They also built boats - until the free shipwrights petitioned the government because they could not, of course, compete with free labour.
They produced 100,000 bricks per month.
And of course produced all of their own fruit and vegetables (such as they were).

Punishments were tough. The "cat of nine tails" had the potential to cut the flesh 81 times in a single stroke.

One Governor realised that the men were coming to be able to endure physical punishment, so devised what was called the Separate Prison. In the Seperate Prison the men were not allowed to speak - not even the guards. They developed a series of gestures to communicate what was necessary. On leaving their cells they wore white cloth face masks with just eye holes so that they could not be recognised by each other. Even in the chapel they were segregated into small vertical cubicles shut off from each other. They were given tasks to do, but they were tasks like sewing that did not make any noise.

If they needed further punishment they were put into a very tiny, totally dark cell. We entered this cell and as soon as you went in through the door you could not see anything - and that was with the door open!

This treatment sent some of the men insane - who'd guess that!?! So they built an Insane Asylum next door. When the prison ceased operating this became the Town Hall - where all the local government types hung out!! - so apt!

We went to the parsonage - which is said to be the most haunted building on the site - I came away disappointed that I didn't meet any ghosts. Nice little cottage though.....

The ruins of the large stone church nearby was very interesting. It is said to be built mainly from the labours of the boys from the island prison nearby. It was never consecrated and was burnt out in a bushfire.

From there we went into the formal gardens that led to the house that visiting big wigs used, which was also burnt out in a bush fire

This led us to the jetty to await our harbour cruise and walking tour around The Isle of The Dead. Every harbour/body of water that I have seen in Tassie is beautiful and this one is no exception. If you look closely you will see two islands in the picture below. On the left is the Isle of The Dead and on the right is Puer where boys between the ages of 9 and 17 were sent. It was hoped that if they were separated from the men they would not become hardened criminals. they were educated and some were taught a trade.

 

The walking tour on the Isle of The Dead was interesting.

The convicts, in the most part, had unmarked graves, the free people, of course did not.

The free people were buried on the high side of the island, the convicts on the low side.

There is one convict grave with no markings that you can see - this is because the guy was interred in a

'tomb with a view'

All of the free people buried here have a view as well....

There is a theory that the free people were buried with their backs to the convicts - looking down on them in death as they did in life..................

Australia's first nnovelist is buried here - he was a convict.  His name was Simon Sutely - someone needs to Google that.