As part of the government’s 19th century plan to rid Britain of its less desirable and criminal population, convicted criminals were transported to one of a number of penal colonies.

Following the American War of Independence Britain no longer had the option of sending its convicts to America. So from 1788, forced transportation meant incarceration in the Australian colonies. For many that meant doing time at Port Arthur.

Trivial crimes by the standards of today, stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child could lead to a prison sentence. Often the offenders were from the slums of the big cities with theft being their only means of survival. With Britain’s prisons overflowing, convicted criminals, regardless of their offence, often found themselves facing transportation to the new convict colonies in Australia. Men, women and even children discovered this was mostly a one way journey. Few ever returned home.

Severe as the sailing across the oceans was, the convicts were to face far worse once they arrived in Australia. Hard labour in harsh conditions, mosquitoes, leeches, disease, floggings, solitary confinement and being shackled often for more than a year with heavy leg-irons that could only be removed by hammer and chisel. New arrivals were given the most punishing and strenuous work as ‘Tree-getters’ and dockyard workers in an attempt to break them and conform to the colony’s strict regulations.

Port Arthur Historic Site

Named after Governor George Arthur in 1830 and conceived as a penal station, Port Arthur began as a timber production centre using convict labour. Timber mills were constructed to process the logs that were being felled by ‘tree-getters’ for use in government projects. By 1833, however, Port Arthur had become a punishment centre for repeat offenders from around the Australian colonies.

Discipline by punishment, training and education was designed to rehabilitate the convicts but, as today, while some went on to live productive, skilled and peaceful lives many continued to reoffend and often spent time committed to solitary confinement in cells only just large enough for a hammock.

Education led to useful skills such as clothes, shoe, furniture and brick making as well as masonry to produce stone for the church and prison buildings, while the more trusted worked at the Dockyard boat building. More than seventy convicts worked in the dockyard mostly as unskilled labour under the direction of skilled civilian shipwrights. Often they would be working neck-deep in cold water. In total the convicts produced around 150 small open-top boats and 16 large-decked ships between 1834 and 1848.

The Treadmill

To feed the growing population of Port Arthur a water-powered flour mill and granary was constructed in 1842. It included a giant treadmill large enough for 56 convicts to operate at once. The treadmill was both a form of providing energy for turning the grind stones in the flour mill but also as punishment by hard and repetitive labour. It wasn’t unusual for a convict to misplace a foot on the treadmill, which usually resulted in mutilation of a limb. Bad as that was, further punishment was often inflicted for not returning to work the next day. A flogging carried out by another convict was a common punishment.

Getting water to the flour mill was troublesome. Evaporation and leakage of the aqueduct and millrace and regular lack of rain meant operation of the mill was far less successful than anticipated and eventually it was used only intermittently.

By 1849 over 2,000 people including convicts, civilian staff and soldiers were based at Port Arthur. However, with the cessation of transportation in 1853, fewer transportees were arriving, instead, being a secondary punishment station, sentenced men from within the convict penal colonies were sent to Port Arthur further increasing the population to almost 3,500. Although large tracts of land had been turned over for cultivation as well as cattle and sheep being reared for meat in an attempt to be self sufficient, the station was still heavily dependent on supplies from the capital, Hobart.

Solitary Confinement

By the late 1840’s the authorities realised that harsh punishment just made the convicts tougher. It was a convict sign of defiance that no cries of pain were made during floggings even when close to death. So an even more savage form of punishment was introduced – Solitary Confinement and for those still unmanageable there was the ‘Dark Cell’ where the prisoner was kept in total darkness and silence for up to 30-days.

In a belief that psychological punishment was more effective, the Separate Prison was built where convicts were isolated from each other and held in total silence. The only time they were permitted to speak or communicate in any form was when questioned by prison guards or to the visiting clergyman. When out of their cells they wore hoods with just slits for their eyes so they were unable to recognise each other. Any breach of the prison rules meant time spent in the Dark Cell.

The isolation broke many men, either mentally destroyed, permanently withdrawn or psychotic and so an asylum was built to house them and other ‘lunatics’ from the other colonies.

In 1857, to cope with the increasing convict population, the granary and flour mill were converted into a penitentiary with workshops, a blacksmith and a steam-powered sawmill added. The lower floor of the building housed 136 confinement cells. On the ground floor men were constrained by heavy leg-irons weighing up to 13kg, while those on the first floor wore lighter irons. And on the uppermost floor bunks we’re constructed for 348 men.

No escaping the Dog Line

About 20km north of Port Arthur the Tasman Peninsula narrows to an isthmus just 100-metres wide known as Eaglehawk Neck. In the early part of the 1830’s, Governor Arthur stationed sentries at the Neck to prevent escapees reaching the mainland of Tasmania. One of the stationed officers suggested placing nine dogs with lamps across the isthmus, not to attack escapees but to alert the sentries of suspicious noise or activity that the sentries could not hear above the noise of the sea. Mostly successful, the number of dogs was further increased to eleven when platforms for the dogs were placed in the sea to prevent any convict’s attempt to wade around the line.

The Dog Line was a good deterrent, as was the rumour spread by the officers that the sea was infested by sharks, and it remained in place until Port Arthur was permanently closed.

Isle of the Dead

Situated within view of the colony is a small, tree covered island and the burial site of more than 1,100 people who died at the colony between 1833 and 1877. It’s more than a challenge to dig a grave in the island’s rocky ground and you have to wonder how so many remains were able to be buried here.

Distinction between the civilian staff, military and convicts continued even in death with the convicts being buried on the lowest ground of the island.

Closure

The settlement was finally closed in 1877 with the buildings and land auctioned-off to private buyers and a change from the name of Port Arthur to Carnarvon.

In all, 76,000 convicts were transported to Australia and held in colonies in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Early Tourism

Very quickly after the closure and sale of the colony, curious tourists began to visit the site and by the 1920’s several of the convict buildings had been converted to museums. Recognising the importance of the convict history of Australia the Tasmanian state government began acquiring portions of the site from private owners and restored the Port Arthur name. Today more than 30-buildings, gardens and extensive ruins form the Port Arthur Historic Site and its importance to Australian history was recognised when in July 2010 the site was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

What we see now, and the defining feature of the Port Arthur Historic Site, is the remains of the penitentiary building gutted by fire in 1897. Just the masonry and the metal bars across the windows survived the heat of the blaze. Many other buildings were also destroyed in the fire including the church, which was attended by up-to 1,100 convicts for the compulsory services held each Sunday.

There is so much more to Port Arthur and it’s convict history and a wealth of information is presented on display in the Visitor Centre and the small museum in the ‘Separate Prison’ building. And, of course, through online resources. However one issue we found in both the visitor centre and prison building was the very low light level and highly reflective copper panels carrying all the descriptive text. We gave up trying to read them.

A lone Gunman

Of course no account of Port Arthur is complete without mentioning the dreadful events of April 28th 1996 when a lone gunman, armed with two semi-automatic rifles, shot dead 35 innocent people and injured 23 others. Twenty of those killed were in and adjacent to the Broad Arrow Cafe at Port Arthur Historic Site. In the coach park the gunman continued shooting and killing including two children aged just three and six years.

The gunman, 29-year old Martin Bryant, remains in Risden Prison near Hobart serving concurrent life sentences for each person he murdered with no parole and an additional life sentence for the remaining 36 charges, which included 20 attempted murders.

The Broad Arrow Cafe was later dismantled leaving only the walls to form part of the memorial to those who tragically lost their lives. Such was the public and political outrage that strict new laws governing gun ownership were introduced. The Port Arthur massacre followed just six-weeks after a similar shooting in the Scottish town of Dunblane where 18 people were killed. Changes to gun ownership laws in the UK were introduced the following year.