Tasmania - Penal Colonisation

The Oldest Bridge in Australia

The Australian State of Tasmania may be reached in only one hour by air from Melbourne but it is entirely unlike Mainland Australia.  Comprising less than 1 percent of the Australian landmass, but nevertheless about half the size of England, it is a land of lakes, mountains and rainforests.  As Van Diemen's Land in the early 1800's it was one of the first areas to be colonised by the British.  The early settlers were convicts, often transported for minor crimes such as stealing a loaf of bread, or a

Richmond

gentleman's silk handkerchief. They established the first settlement at Hobart, but by 1830 with widespread instances of anarchy and lawlessness, a new, notorious penal colony was set up at Port Arthur. Set upon a peninsula, most convicts were shipped in, and escape over the narrow isthmus was virtually impossible.  In fact after 2 or 3 days on the run most escapees willingly gave themselves up to their gaolers and faced 100 lashes rather than certain death without food or water in the bush.

En route to our  day visit to Port Arthur from our hotel in Hobart, we stopped off at Richmond, a Georgian village and staging post in the movement of military, police and convicts between Hobart and Port Arthur. Richmond proudly boasts the oldest bridge in Australia, the oldest Catholic Church, and the oldest gaol.

Port Arthur - The Penitentiary

Port Arthur was in use until 1877. At its height it was a major industrial settlement with over 2,000 convicts  and soldiers present.  Convicts undertook hard labour but learned skills including carpentry, black smithing and shipbuilding. More than 160 ships were built here.  The site contains more than 30 historic buildings, although the four storey Penitentiary, itself the conversion of a flour mill and

Port Arthur -The Hospital

granary, is a ruin, having been destroyed by a bush fire in the late 1800's. Other buildings suffered a similar fate.  There was a separate prison for boys, transported from England as young as the age of nine, on an Island in the bay. In it's later years the colony was used as an institution, many of the convicts having been driven to insanity by long periods of solitary confinement.

In a nice tourist twist visitors are given a playing card when they purchase their entry ticket.  Each card corresponds with the name of a real convict, and as you enter the museum you find out who you

Port Arthur Asylum

were and why you were transported to the colony. I was John Blake, a man who refused to take orders. (Somebody knows me too well!).  While a convict I received 782 strokes of the lash.  I spent 267 days in solitary confinement and laboured for nearly 4 years in chains.  The irony is that had I kept my mouth shut, as an ex-soldier I probably would have been employed as an overseer.

On another day we visited Bruny Island, 40 miles from Hobart, and reached by vehicle ferry. This

was an area of isolated communities, gently rolling hills and stunning bays dotted with unpretentious holiday homes. North and South Bruny are joined by a narrow causeway known as The Neck where a set of steps runs up to a viewing platform with spectacular views across the Island and beyond.

Bruny Island - The Neck