We had a great day at the Port Arthur Historic Site on Monday, staying until we almost dropped, in the 29 degree temperatures.
Port Arthur was originally established as a lumber-gathering penal camp in 1830, but by 1833 it had become the place where the worst re-offenders from other penal settlements were sent. The approach was classification, separation, discipline and religious & moral instruction. It makes the US prison at Guantanamo Bay look like a luxury resort. Each convict wore ankle irons, weighing up to 13 Kg, connected by a short chain which allowed the wearer to shuffle. The worst offenders were also chained to a wooden log, which they had to pick up and carry whenever they moved. The convicts were not allowed to speak to each other.
Also sent to Port Arthur were political prisoners, including Fenian Irishmen and some Canadian and Americans accused of trying to achieve independence from Britain for Canada.
We started with a harbour tour which gave us a good view of the entire facility. In the photo below, the Commandant's house is on the point on the left and the large building in the foreground is the penitentiary. Moving up the hill are the military facilities, and above that the officers' quarters.
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Port Arthur Historic Site from the Harbour
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The penitentiary was originally a grain & flour storage building, which was later converted to house convicts. The large flat grassy area was reclaimed by convicts using pick and shovel, and was where the heavy workshops were built.
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The Penitentiary
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One of the most amazing things about the site was the stark difference between the lives of the convicts and the lives of those in control. The senior civil servants were from the English upper class and lived in an English-style village, complete with church, formal gardens and a village green, where they could live a typical upper class life.
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The Village Church across the Green
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View from the Medical Officer's House
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It was a busy day at Port Arthur, with bus loads of tourists from a cruise ship which was docked in Hobart, but also the Queen Mary II was moored in the harbour at Port Arthur, bringing another 2,700 visitors. By 3 pm the cruisers had left and the site, allowing us to explore more leisurely.
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Queen Mary II at Port Arthur
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Later in the afternoon we took in two mini plays, which provided a good explanation of various aspects of Port Arthur. The first talked about an American who was sent to Port Arthur for helping Canadian separatists, and the second talked about the relative sanity of the convicts (the lunatic) versus the Commandant (the man with the plan) and the civil servants (the scribbler).
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| The Scribbler, the Lunatic & the Man with the Plan |
When we left the site at 4:45 pm, there were very few people remaining. It certainly was not difficult to spend a full day here, and we did not explore all of the buildings on site.
Port Arthur is located at the bottom of the Tasman Peninsular, and was one of several penal facilities on the peninsular. As you move up the peninsular, there are narrow isthmuses at Eaglehawk Neck & Dunalley, which acted as natural control points. At Eaglehawk Neck there was a dog line extending across the isthmus and into the bay, where the dogs, on 3 metre chains, would attack any convict trying to escape by land.
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| Jim Crossing the Dog Line |
Very close to Eaglehawk Neck there are a series of natural features caused by the water battering the rock over the years, creating caves, tunnels and arches. So before leaving the area we explored Tasman's Arch, the Devil's Kitchen and the Tasman Blowhole (good ice cream here).
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| Tasman's Arch |
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| Tasman Peninsular |
Next stop, Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park
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