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Our visit to Tasmania was far too brief. It is an intriguing land of mostly wilderness, beautiful landscapes and an ideal climate with sufficient rain to maintain it’s lush greenness, but without over-doing it.

We arrived in the delightful port of Hobart before sunrise and set out on a two hour road journey to Port Arthur. The time soon passed as we enjoyed the scenic coastal route crossing bridges and causeways along the rugged coastline. We were on our way to visit the historic Port Arthur prison site.

The prison was established during the 1830s, with the construction labour mostly being provided by prisoners themselves, and it closed in 1877. It was a ‘secondary’ prison, meaning that it housed transportees who committed further crimes. Prisoners there were subjected to punishing forced labour, but it also provided some opportunities for trades to be learned.

It was a prison without a perimeter wall or fence as it was surrounded by the ‘shark infested’ sea, and only connected to the mainland by one narrow, easily guarded, causeway.

The picture below shows the quayside. The port was highly active at it’s peak when visiting ships supported the needs of 1,200 prisoners plus all the residing guards and administration personnel along with their families. They also shipped away all the goods produced on the site.

In the centre behind the quay is the guard’s tower and barracks where resident soldiers lived in cramped conditions.

Below shows, on the hill, the remains of the welfare area where prisoners would be hospitalised while suffering mainly from respiratory illnesses or scurvy, industrial injuries – of which there were many – or those recovering from cat n’ nine tail lashings. There was also an asylum for prisoners who could not work due to old age or disability or, perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the conditions, due to mental illness.

We cruised around the bay.

Below is a picture of ‘ The Isle of the Dead’, Port Arthur’s cemetery where around 1,100 prisoners and some free men and women and children are buried.

One occupation was shipbuilding. The image below shows the dockyard, with a metal structure representing a wooden ship in construction on the slipway. 16 large ships were built there.

Later we walked to the penitentiary building

The ground and first floors had all individual cells as illustrated below. These were for the prisoners ‘of bad character’. The top floor provided space for the better behaved convicts, who were allowed to sleep in bunks.

Each individual cell had a hook at each end for the hammock and two shelves for the folded hammock and a copy of the Bible. They were also furnished with two buckets, one for clean water.

At just nine years old, James Lynch was believed to be the youngest prisoner at Port Arthur. His story below refers to a character remarkably similarity to Fagan in Oliver Twist which Dickens had written eight or nine years prior to James’ conviction.

The Separate Prison referred to above was used as an alternative to corporal punishment and prisoners were isolated in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day with just one hour for exercise. There was also a ‘punishment cell’ for any that continued to offend.

The garden below is in the area where senior officers and their families lived. The plants used were exported from England as a ‘reminder of home’.

What Happened on Sunday 28th April 1996?

The above plaque records a terribly tragic event when a gunman killed 35 people at the Port Arthur historic site. The café where the shooting commenced is now a memorial garden with just the walls of the original building remaining.

Port Arthur is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful location but this is in stark contrast to the harsh and tragic conditions held in it’s past. Quite a moving experience.

On the way back to Hobart, we visited Tasman’s Arch, the remains of a large sea cave created by wave action over thousands of years.

We are now on our way to Albany in the state of Western Australia. The sea has been very rough and the weather quite cool, although we are expecting a high of 32 degrees tomorrow.