Friday 16 January 2015
Port Arthur today!
Now this was a day that I thought Hayden would consider a boring one,
but in fact he really was fascinated. It
took one and a half hours to get to Port Arthur from Hobart, and as seems to be
the case with all Tasmanian roads we were constantly ascending, descending or
turning on long bends, often also ascending or descending at the same
time.
We had Silver passes to Port
Arthur which included an Introductory Tour, a harbour cruise, a guided tour of
Point Puer Boys Prison and an audio tour of the ruins. My only negative comment would be that the
advice given when collecting the ipod app gave the impression that you had to
select what you wished to listen to, however after listening to all the
sections, it seems we could have done it as one continuous walking tour. Lunch was included, and was more than
adequate – I didn’t eat dinner. We arrived at 09:00, and we left at 18:00 not
because we were finished but because we needed to get home and get Hayden to
bed. Now I see why the tickets are set up to allow entry on two consecutive
days – there is so much to see and explore.
Next time, I would stay on the Tasman Peninsula – as originally advised
to do – as we didn’t get time to see everything at Port Arthur and look at the
Dog Lines, Tessellated Pavements and show Hayden just how narrow Eaglehawk Neck
is.
 |
| Penitentiary |
 |
| Point Puer |
 |
| Bread oven ruins |
 |
 |
| Port Arthur Hospital |
 |
| Port Arthur Hospital |
 |
| Police Station |
 |
| Port Arthur Hospital |
A few things I learnt today that I thought were
interesting:
-the boys prison had sixty-eight to eight hundred
boys at a time. The boys did
apprenticeships in a variety of trades to give them an option other than crime
once released – obviously not all took the option of work, but some did
-the buildings and houses were much more numerous
and more densely packed than I had previously realized from looking at the
ruins. Many of the buildings had been
wooden and destroyed in bushfires in 1895 and 1897; in addition many of the
stone and brick buildings were dismantled and recycled into buildings elsewhere
-female convicts descendants (not just the convicts
themselves) had smaller babies that were more sickly and this persisted into
the 20th century
-how skilled much of the work done on site was, for
example the manufacture of the church bells
-the degree of isolation in the separate prison –
23 hours per day in a solitary cell, 1 hour each day in a solitary exercise
yard, food through a hole, church in individual standing cubicles with vertical
walls above head height, a mask to be worn whenever outside the cell. Pretty cruel!!
Below are extracts from “Rules to be Observed by
the Convicts”:
64. The
convicts, upon no pretence whatever, are to attempt holding any communication
with each other, either by words or signs, and must never read aloud, sing,
whistle, dance or make any other noise in their cells, exercise yards,
corridors or chapel. The convicts are
only to be addressed by the number of their cells, and no man must ever use his
name in communication with the officers placed over him.
83. Convicts
will be allowed to write one letter, and to receive another every three months;
and when desirous of writing, application is to be made to the officer of their
division for the necessary materials.
No comments:
Post a Comment