Port Arthur is the focal point for the Tasman Peninsula. It is an evocative place, bringing out many emotions in the visitor. For the first 45 years of its life Port Arthur was a place of hardship and punishment, where the worst of the convicts and repeat offenders were sent. We found the Seperate Prison, where the very worst spent their time, and Point Puer, the boy’s prison, very confronting places. But is is easy to forget that for the majority of its history Port Arthur has been a place of opportunity, and a place of leisure. Those opportunities have been taken and now it is one of Australia’s most important heritage destinations. It is our Colisseum or Acropolis, and we really appreciated our time there. We also enjoyed the other stunning places on the Peninsula – Pirate Bay, the Blowhole, the Arch, the Devils Kitchen, and the wonderful beaches, headlands and cliffs of this remarkable place.
We visited the Port Arthur area on 18, 19 & 20 October 2019
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Spring Beach > Sorell (56kms) > Dunalley (31kms) > Eaglehawk Neck (20kms) > White Beach (29kms) ~ total of 136kms.
History
A short history of Tasmania, from pre-European times, to the arrival and growth of European development, to the decimation of the Aboriginal Tasmanians, can be read here.
Before British colonial times, the Tasman Peninsula was occupied by the Pydairrerme ( Pie – Dare – Rer – Ma) the most southerly group of the Eastern First Nations people. From bones found at Eaglehawk Neck around the turn of the nineteenth century and later carbon-dated, we know that the Pydairrerme had been on the Peninsula for at least 5,000 years.
Port Arthur began as a small convict-based timber station in 1830 and by 1833, had evolved into a penal colony for the worst British convicts and repeat offenders, as well as juvenile offenders who were sent across the bay to Point Puer. Governor Arthur founded the settlement on the revolutionary idea that prisoners could be reformed through psychological punishment, trade training and religious education.
The first decade saw the first manufactories set up – such as ship building, shoemaking, smithing, timber and brick making. The 1840s witnessed a consolidation as the convict population reached over 1,100. In 1842 a huge flour mill and granary (later abandoned and converted to the Penitentiary) was begun, as well as the construction of a hospital.
1848 saw the start of the building of the Separate Prison, the completion of which brought about a shift in punishment from physical to mental subjugation. Port Arthur also expanded geographically as the convicts pushed further into the encircling hills to extract the valuable timber.
After the American Independence, Britain could no longer send convicts to America, so after 1788 they were transported to the Australian colonies. These men and women were convicted of crimes that seem trivial today, mostly stealing small articles or livestock, but they had been convicted at least once before and Britain’s policy was to treat re-offenders harshly. The convicts sent to Van Diemen’s Land were most likely to be poor young people from rural areas or from the slums of big cities. One in five was a woman. Numbers of children were also transported with their parents. Few returned.
The prison was considered inescapable. Located on a peninsula, it was surrounded by water, which was rumoured to be filled with sharks. The only connection to the mainland was roughly thirty meters wide and guarded by soldiers, fences, traps, and half-starved dogs. Of course, inmates still tried to escape. Martin Cash and two friends swam to freedom, the details of which were captured in his 1870 autobiography.
Port Arthur had its own island cemetery, known as the Isle of the Dead. Over 1,100 people were buried there, but there are only 180 grave markers, belonging to a Minister, prison guards, staff, military, and their families, and a few convicts. Most of the convicts were buried in unmarked, multi-person graves.
There was also a boys’ prison – the Point Puer Boys’ Prison, the first separate boys’ prison in the British Empire. Over 3,000 boys passed through this. The youngest was nine, and the first sixty “inmates,” brought to the colony in 1833, had to build the prison. Point Puer was known for “stern discipline and harsh punishments.”
The prison colony was shut down in 1877, and devastating fires in 1895 and 1897 help speed up the adoption of the land as general residential land. It almost immediately became a tourist attraction, and by the 1920s a tourist economy had sprung up. Preservation efforts began almost immediately, and in 2010, Port Arthur was added to the World Heritage List. Over its long history, Port Arthur has been a place of hardship and punishment, a place of opportunity, and a place of leisure. Now it is one of Australia’s most important heritage destinations.
Day 1 – Fri 18 October – To White Beach
Kerry was up early on yet another very cold morning. But at least it wasn’t raining. She got the camera out for more photos of the sun rising over Maria Island.
We drove the short distance to Orford and then turned west along the Prosser River. This is a large river and we spied a weir across it, obviously to provide town water supplies to the area.
The landscape is virtually all farmlands, but with poor looking grasslands on which sheep are generally grazing. Further west the farmlands looked to improve slightly but we saw very few cattle.
Sorell is interesting and we quickly realise how very close we are to Hobart. We drove across the water to Midway Point, simply to have a look around and cross Pitt Water – we live on the Sydney Pittwater. There we turned around and headed back into Sorell.
We do not see much of interest in Sorell and quickly drove through and headed east towards Dunalley. There are good views to the bay around the town, and we also stopped to look at the Denison Canal. The was opened in 1905 and was built to shorten the fishing and trade route between the east coast and Hobart.
We stopped at a lovely beach on the way to Eaglehawk Neck.
Shortly before we got to the Neck, we turned left onto Pirates Bay Drive and very quickly found ourselves at an incredible lookout. This provided amazing views down the dramatic coastline. We took many photographs, but none did justice to this awesome vantage point.
From there it was a short drive to get to the Tessellated Pavement. This is a most unusual rock formation, and we wondered why it occurred here but nowhere else that we have seen.
Close to that is the Offices Quarters and a relic of the dog line. This provided the main means of detecting any convicts trying to escape from Port Arthur. A cutting was dug through the full width of the dunes of the Neck to form a broad passage from one side of the neck to the other. The floor of the cutting was covered with white cockleshells which with the light from lamps illuminated the site at night. Initially nine dogs were chained along the length of the cutting creating a ferocious blockade. This was the infamous “dog line” established in 1832 and abandoned with Port Arthur’s closure in 1877. If any movement or noise was detected, the dogs would start barking, alerting the armed guards.
We stopped at Pirate Bay Beach – a nice beach with high cliffs along the left-hand side.
We drove through the little town of Doo to get to the blowhole. Many of the houses had names tied to the name of the town, such as “Do-little”. The blowhole is actually a large elongated pool into which waves pound via an arch. But the seas were quite calm when we were there so there was not much blow from this hole.
Next to the blowhole is the Fossil Bay lookout which provides great views up-and-down this very rugged coastline.
The jetty is quite large and on the eastern side there is a rocky and narrow channel through which the ocean waters make their way into the jetty bay. The rocks in this channel are quite unusual and look like mini blocks of stone.
You get to the Tasman Arch directly from the car park. This is a massive arch in the cliff face with views to the ocean on the other side. This was a cave many aeons ago, but over time, the roof at the back collapsed – you get the idea from the photo below.
On the coastal side of the Arch there is another lookout, providing glorious views down this very striking coastline.
It is hard to see the Devils Kitchen from the first lookout you come to. The cliff face opposite is sheer and very high so that the water was a long way down. But the lookout was just not far enough over the chasm to actually see the water below. We did walk out and found another lookout at the car park which provided a better view.
We travelled past Port Arthur, which we will visit the next day, through the town of Carnarvon, stopping to eat lunch sitting on a jetty. This is a nice bay.
Further south we came to Safety Cove and which has a lovely sandy beach, and also some brilliant views past the cliffs over to the ocean. This is a very dramatic place.
We had thought there may be a road or track looping around the bottom part of the peninsular, but sadly not. So we drove back through Carnarvon and crossed to the other side of the peninsula, over the central ridge to get to Nubeena. We did some shopping, checked out the view of the bay, and then drove further west to get to White Beach, where our B&B is located. The third photo below is the view from the balcony of the house.
Day 2 – Sat 19 October – Port Arthur
We planned to spend most of the day at Port Arthur. Thankfully the morning was bright and clear, although the weather forecast predicted periods of heavy rain. It is only about 10 km to get to Port Arthur and we were there not long after it opened at 9 am. But already some of the carparks are quite full. The cost of the tickets was $32pp. And we were surprised to see that this included a cruise on the bay. We were told that the guided tour at 9:30 had just started so if we hurried we could catch them up and join them. This we did.
The tour lasted about 40 minutes and provided an excellent introduction to Port Arthur and what it was about. And it did indeed sound very gruesome, especially the Separate Prison designed for the worst of the convicts. We also saw the impressive gardens.
After the tour, we went to the car to get our warmest jackets on and Kerry bought a beanie – a strong wind made it bitterly cold. Hate to be a convict in winter.
We went back to the Penitentiary to have a look without the rest of the tour group milling around. It really is an amazing building. It was originally constructed as a flower miill in 1845, with the grain ground by either a water powered mill or, when the water flow was inadequate, as it often was, by convicts working on a treadmill. This was regarded as one of the harshest of punishments.
However, insufficient water flows made the mill non viable, so the building was converted to the penitentiary. The lower floors housed 136 separate cells – look how small the cells were in the photos below. The ground floor held the men in heavy irons and the first floor inmates were in lighter irons. The dormitory was located on the top floor accommodating 348 men and basic bunk style beds. Prisoners could work their way up the building with good behaviour. The bars on the windows were actually to keep the inmates OUT, not inside – going back to when the building was a mill.
It was soon time to go over to the boat for the 11am tour around the harbour, passing the pretty Clerk of Works cottage on the way. The cruise was excellent. We were surprised to see that just around the corner from Port Arthur, is the town of Carnarvon, where we had had lunch the previous day.
The tour guide on the boat spoke a lot about the Point Puer Boys’ prison established in 1834. This was the first purpose-built juvenile reformatory in the British Empire and most of the boys were aged between 14 and 17 with the youngest just 9. The prison was renowned for a very harsh regime of discipline and punishment. However, some of the boys got educated, and others learnt a trade.
We sailed past this point and out into the bay looking down towards Tasman Island. There was only a very mild swell that day.
The boat sailed around and then pulled into the jetty on the Isle of the Dead – the cemetery. Between 1833 and 1877 around 1,100 people were buried there, including convicts, civilians and military offices, their wives and children and a Minister.
They announced on the boat that people could have a look around the island as an additional tour. We immediately jumped up to join the tour, which cost $20 each, and left the boat. We were a bit dismayed to see that the boat then pulled away from the jetty. We asked the guide what was happening and he said that the boat was taking the rest of the people back to Port Arthur and they would pick us up again during the next tour. I explained that we hadn’t realised this and that we had left some our gear on the boat. Fortunately the guide radioed the boat and all was well.
It was a really good tour on the island and the guide told us about a wide range of different people who had been buried there. His stories covered the full range of people at Port Arthur ranging from the pastor down to the convicts.
As we were finishing the tour it started to rain, which got heavier and heavier, and we were soon all very wet as there is no shelter on the island. Finally the boat returned and we were able to get out of the rain and to pick up our things.
As we were finishing the tour the rain stopped, as it would, so we continued to have a look around in the south west corner.
The pick of the building was the Commandant’s House built in 1833. It was modified over the years as each new commandant came to live, with the additions working their way up the hill. It ended up quite a substantial building.
After Port Arthur closed, the house was converted into a hotel. Below is the room where the owner lived – the servants lived in a loft above this room. I cannot for the life of me see where many guests would have slept though.
We also looked at Smith O’Briens cottage, built in the 1840s. We had read all about O’Brien at Maria Island – the Irish Protestant parliamentarian who had tried to reform the way the Irish were being treated. Unfortunately he had liaised with the French and was transported to Van Diemens Land.
As it had turned very cold, and it look likely to rain again at any moment, we called it a day knowing that, as the entry ticket is valid for two consecutive days, we could come back the next morning and complete the tour before heading to Richmond.
We stopped at White Beach but the wind was icy and strong.
The B&B had brilliant views over White Beach and was a lovely cosy cottage. We really needed the pot belly stove in the afternoons and mornings. It was only 10km from Port Arthur and there was a supermarket close by. But it did have a very steep and twisty driveway which at times made us wish for the Land Cruiser we had going around the country. The house was small but really well done and the kitchen had tea, coffee, oil, s&p, alfoil – all that stuff that you don’t carry with you. The living area was a real sun-trap – so nice on a cold day.
Day 3 – Sun 20 October – Port Arthur
We packed up quickly at White Beach and were the first into Port Arthur. We made our way through the gardens up to the church, past Government Cottage.
Built in 1837, the church represents the important role of religion and convict reform adopted at Port Arthur. Up to 1,100 people attended compulsory services at the church each Sunday. Much of the decorative stonework and joinery in the church was crafted by the boys from Point Puer. The church was never consecrated allowing for multi-denominational services to be held.
Nearby is the much more modest St Davids Anglican church, built in 1927 after many years of holding services in the Town Hall (Asylum).
From there we walked around looking at the various cottages and other buildings that remain.
We then got to the Separate Prison, where they practiced the “Silent System.” Prisoners were forced to wear hoods when in the company of other people so that they could not “know” any other person, spend their days in solitary confinement cells, were identified by numbers rather than names, and were forced to remain silent at all times.
Every form of noise was eliminated – the guards even wore padding on their boots. In the chapel, each inmate was positioned in a timber stall where they could only see the minister.
In the punishment cell, prisoners were kept in total darkness and without any sound for very long periods. We looked in one of these cells and it is awful.
Convicts were all locked in single cells for 23 hours each day. Here they ate, slept and worked, with just one hour allowed for exercise alone in a high walled yard. The rules for this follow.
The idea was that this would give the prisoners a chance to reflect on what they did wrong. This was considered not only humane, but an advancement in prisoner reform. By any standards this was an awful place, unimaginable in current times.
But in reality many prisoners developed mental illnesses after being kept in darkness and silence for days on end – the maximum sentence into this Seperate Prison was reduced from 2 years to 18 months as the impacts began to appear. There are some people who say that the psychological damage was so bad that some prisoners committed murder in order to get a death sentence.
On that cheery note we made our way to the Asylum, right next door. This was actually based on a recognition of mental healthcare.
We then left Port Arthur, passing the water fountain on the way. However, crossing the large lawn of the gardens, a couple of hooded plovers started making a right racket. Sure enough, nearby Kerry spotted their nest with 4 eggs. We approached the nest just to have a look didn’t get too close – and got a right telling off by the bird.
To see photos from this post, click here
To see a video from this post, click here