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downunder 08 - port arthur convict colony
A visit to Tasmania is not complete without spending a few hours at Port Arthur Historic Site, one of the best preserved historic landmarks in Australia and its convict past. The first British settlements in Australia were established by miltary personnel and convicts, using convict labour. In 1833, Port Arthur in Tasmania was founded as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all other Australian colonies. It lies on a natural harbour on a remote pennisula in the south east of Tasmania, and it's remoteness made it an ideal location for such a settlement.
The most recognizable building on the site is the ruins of the penitentiary. Although the penitentiary was used to house the convicts, they did not spend all day in their cells. The remoteness of Port Arthur acted as a deterrent to escapes and during the day the convicts were put to work cutting timber, making bricks, stone-cutting, constructing roads and buildings and producing shoes, clothing and tools.
The "Separate Prison" was built at Port Arthur in 1849 as ideas about how to reform the hardest criminals were changing. Instead of physical punishment, it was thought that "in a quiet, ordered atmoshpere a man could contemplate his sin and change his life" - what would now be called solitary confinement. The picture above shows a typical cell in the Separate Prison. What you see is the actual size of the cell. There was a bucket (for a toilet), a desk & stool (for work tasks such as mat and broom making) and two hooks in the wall where a hammock was hung at night for sleeping.
Prisoners were allowed an hour's exercise each day, but were kept separate even during exercise. Heather is standing in front of the gates to the exercise yards. Each yard was a small pie piece wedge separated by high walls. Only one prisoner was allowed in each yard at a time.
Church services were compulsory but at the chapel in the Separate Prison prisoners were still kept separate, each place in the pews being separated by a series of swinging doors and walls so that the convicts could only look straight ahead at the minister and not see or talk to anyone else.
For those not restricted to solitary confinement, life was hard but not always unpleasant. Many learned trades such as brickmaking, shipbuilding or tailoring, that would help them earn an honest wage once their sentences were finished. Above is view from the old hospital towards the harbour.
The soldiers that guarded the convicts lived in a barracks located close to the Penitentiary. Today only a stone wall and the guard towers remain, after much of the structure was destroyed by bushfires in 1897.
By 1840 over 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived at the Port Arthur settlement which covered over 40 hectares (100 acres). Many of the cottages of the civil servants such as the magistrate, medical officers, chaplain and government accountant have been preserved and restored.
Becasue convicts were guarded by soldiers rather than police or corrections officers, the miltary commandant was in charge of the colony. The commandant's cottage sits on a hill next to the barracks, overlooking the harbour.
Inside the Commandants Cottage has been furnished as it appeared in the late 1800's.
View from the harbour towards the Commandant's cottage, ruins of the Barracks and the Penitentiary.
A visit to Tasmania is not complete without spending a few hours at Port Arthur Historic Site, one of the best preserved historic landmarks in Australia and its convict past. The first British settlements in Australia were established by miltary personnel and convicts, using convict labour. In 1833, Port Arthur in Tasmania was founded as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all other Australian colonies. It lies on a natural harbour on a remote pennisula in the south east of Tasmania, and it's remoteness made it an ideal location for such a settlement.
The most recognizable building on the site is the ruins of the penitentiary. Although the penitentiary was used to house the convicts, they did not spend all day in their cells. The remoteness of Port Arthur acted as a deterrent to escapes and during the day the convicts were put to work cutting timber, making bricks, stone-cutting, constructing roads and buildings and producing shoes, clothing and tools.
The "Separate Prison" was built at Port Arthur in 1849 as ideas about how to reform the hardest criminals were changing. Instead of physical punishment, it was thought that "in a quiet, ordered atmoshpere a man could contemplate his sin and change his life" - what would now be called solitary confinement. The picture above shows a typical cell in the Separate Prison. What you see is the actual size of the cell. There was a bucket (for a toilet), a desk & stool (for work tasks such as mat and broom making) and two hooks in the wall where a hammock was hung at night for sleeping.
Prisoners were allowed an hour's exercise each day, but were kept separate even during exercise. Heather is standing in front of the gates to the exercise yards. Each yard was a small pie piece wedge separated by high walls. Only one prisoner was allowed in each yard at a time.
Church services were compulsory but at the chapel in the Separate Prison prisoners were still kept separate, each place in the pews being separated by a series of swinging doors and walls so that the convicts could only look straight ahead at the minister and not see or talk to anyone else.
For those not restricted to solitary confinement, life was hard but not always unpleasant. Many learned trades such as brickmaking, shipbuilding or tailoring, that would help them earn an honest wage once their sentences were finished. Above is view from the old hospital towards the harbour.
By 1840 over 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived at the Port Arthur settlement which covered over 40 hectares (100 acres). Many of the cottages of the civil servants such as the magistrate, medical officers, chaplain and government accountant have been preserved and restored.
Becasue convicts were guarded by soldiers rather than police or corrections officers, the miltary commandant was in charge of the colony. The commandant's cottage sits on a hill next to the barracks, overlooking the harbour.
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