2 On the Road: Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania, Australia

As we entered the Port Arthur Historic Site we were given a small booklet with information about the site. The following photos are from that booklet so you have an idea what we were there to see. You may have to click on the photos to enlarge them for reading.

There's a lot of interesting information at the following site:
History Timeline - Port Arthur Historic Site

A map of a site always helps me understand what I am seeing so here's the legend with the map on the following two posts.

Click to enlarge so you can read the numbers assigned to each location.

The saddest thing I saw while visiting this site.

At the visitor center we were each given a card.

We matched this card to the matching drawer within the museum to learn about the person we had been assigned.

My sister's card with the booklet we were given

View of the site from the air

Token under a magnifying glass

A tour of the site is included in admission. This is the penitentiary with some of the other buildings behind it. We learned many interesting facts about the site as we toured. Built in 1845 as a flour mill, the building was the largest in Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land as it was known at the time. The mill's water wheel was 10 meters (30 feet) high. Only there wasn't enough water to run the mill so they started using convicts to make the wheel turn. They were forced to walk inside the wheel to keep it turning. Kind of like hamster wheels. The Mill only ran for four years before the building was converted into a penitentiary. The top floor housed 350 prisoners every night. The third floor was a library with 13,000 books including trade manuals.

Although hard to read, this display shows existing buildings in white with the outlines of other buildings that existed during the convict years. Although it took 8 hours to sail from Hobart to Port Arthur, the use of semaphores cut the time to relay messages to 15 minutes!

From the right, Flour Mill/Penitentiary 1843 (4 stories). Constables'/Watchmen's Quarters 1857 (right up against the penitentiary). Guard Tower 1835. Above the guard tower is the Senior Military Officer's Quarters. The yellow building is Officer's Quarters from 1854. The guard tower is the oldest structure still standing on the site. Soldiers were stationed at the convict site for 12 to 18-month terms.

Separated by trees on the left, is the Commandant's House.

Looking over the penitentiary and up the hill to the remains of the hospital. Doctors examined the convicts each week.

As we moved closer to the penitentiary, we crossed this canal. Dug by convicts of course. Convicts learned many trades while at Port Arthur. They included coopers, carpenters, bookmakers, boat makers, shoemakers, iron workers and more because most of what they used, they made.

As always, wikipedia has a lot more information on the site.

The peninsula on which Port Arthur is located is a naturally secure site since it was surrounded by water. Escape was also discouraged by the rumor of sharks in the bay. The narrow isthmus of Eaglehawk Neck was the only connection to the mainland. It was fenced and guarded by soldiers, man traps, and dogs.

Very interesting flowering tree. It's a datura, also called Devil's Trumpet due to its shape and highly poisonous nature.

Civil row built in the 1850's as housing for all the civil employees. The building at the top of the photos is the Port Arthur Motor Inn, where we were staying. We stayed in a room in a separate building named Guard Row. We could enter the Historic site directly from the hotel.

I didn't get a photo of this one as the view of it is mostly obscured by trees.

Roman Catholic Chaplain's House. Male convicts took care of the gardens. Female convicts taught the children and cleaned the homes.

The Junior Medical Officer's House was open

Upon entering the Junior Medical Officer's House.

What!? They raised 12 kids in this house? I thought my childhood bedroom was crowded when I had to share a very small room with one sister.

The Asylum and Separate Prison. Notice the line of trees in front of the buildings.

Section of trunk from one of the original trees.

Masked lapwings were nesting in the mulch alongside the Memorial Avenue. We were warned that they might swoop at us. None did that to me, but they sure did make a lot of noise.

The Asylum was the last major building to be built during the convict era. When Port Arthur shut down in 1877, people started coming to see the site. Tourists took a lot of stuff.

Originally Port Arthur's violent lunatics were housed in the Separate Prison

The site's commandant was more concerned with management than with treatment. If the prisoners continued to behave in a disorderly manner, staff resorted to punishment.

In 1889 the land and buildings on the site were auctioned. The new town was renamed Carnarvon. Dances were held in the Asylum Building. It was said to have the best dance floor in Tasmania. In 1895 bushfires caused serious damage to the buildings. After extensive repairs the asylum building was used as the Carnarvon Council Chambers and continued to be used as a school. After renovations in the 1970's, the building was used to house Port Arthur's museum.

Back side of the Separate Prison.

The tours didn't go inside the buildings, but our guide said the guards at the Separate Prison wore felt slippers.

Prisoners lived a very regimented life.

Each cell had a number and a bell

Love the stories of the individuals who had occupied Port Arthur.

There's not much left of the church, which was the first major building built at Port Arthur.

Government Gardens

Almost bought this dish towel with all the different Tasmanian animals on it.

1996 Memorial Garden entrance

Can't believe someone would want to live surrounded by this historic monument with all the visitors going past every day.

A cruise of the bay is included in the price of admission

We also did the Isle of the Dead tour. Over the course of 44 years, more than a thousand people were buried on this island. We were on the island at this point and the land across the water is Point Puer, where juveniles were held separately from the adults. This facility ran for 14 years. The thought was to keep the children separate from the criminal influence of the adults. Turned out they didn't have enough people to teach the children so this responsibility was turned over to the adult convict. Housing on the point was constructed for 200 but ended up housing 700.

The tour was conducted on a walkway since there are unmarked convict burial sites dotting the island.

Convicts were buried in unmarked mass graves on the lower part of the island. Of the more than 1,600 known graves on the island, only 180 graves have headstones.

Burials of civilians, military officers, their wives and childen were on the higher part of the island. The following website has more information on the island. The Isle of the Dead - Tasmanian Times

If I remember correctly, this headstone marks the graves of two people, one a free person and one a convict.

Our tour guide told us the history of some of the people buried here. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of medical care at the time, many were young women who died during childbirth and children.

This marker started out as the headstone on the grave of a two-year old. But unfortunately, the family lost two more children - a 5-month-old and an 18-year-old.

I was surprised by the rhododendron but I found out there are over 1,000 species and some are native to Australia. We have many bushes in our yard in Oregon.