Port Arthur
Door: Devils Uncle
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Paul
12 Februari 2008 | Australië, Sydney
If you would be a convict and been transported to Australia, then you should have feared our destination of today. Today we went to Port Arthur Historic Site. I will explain why you should fear this place.
Back in the days of the colonization of Australia, Tasmania was still called Van Diemen’s Land, named after the gouvenor-general of the Dutch East Indies, who has send Abel Tasman to search for the Great South Land, resulting in the discovery of the island (it was found out later that it was an island). In this time Australia was the place where convicts were transported to, to work as a servant for the various colonists. As there were only a few colonies, they were transported to Van Diemen’s Land. These convicts have been responsible for loads of buildings and infrastructure such as you can find along the previous mentioned Heritage Highway. So far Port Arthur hasn’t been the subject. But when you committed another crime while on transportation, then you would be send to Port Arthur penal prison. You also need to imagine that there wasn’t any age limit during the days of the transportations. Due to this the youngest prisoner at Port Arthur was 7 and the oldest 92. It’s a thing you can’t imagine nowadays, not to mention the crime they committed.
At the arrival at Port Arthur I was surprised that I seemed to be a convict as well. I was given the 6 of Hearts, the card that showed my real identity. You can read it at the photo’s. They have a complete stock of cards stating the convictions which help you with the interpretation of the site in the days it was operational. After the introducing walk through the museum you get to the main part of the site, the township itself with all its historic buildings.
The site has been preserved excellent, helped by the fact that a lot of buildings had been private property (and some still are). When you look at the layout of the site and more important when you gain the information from the guided walks and the interpretation signs, you’ll get a good impression of how life was at Port Arthur. The site has different zones where you were only allowed to come if you had a certain status. And these zonal rules seemed to be obeyed well. The better your manners the more privileges you got. But on the other hand, they could be extremely sadistic as well. When you disobeyed a rule and got convicted to a certain amount of lashes from the whip, but you lost consciousness before the last one, you would be treated at the hospital. And when you were treated, you went strait back to get the remainder of your lashes. And besides a hospital they also had an asylum for mentally ill convicts. As mentally ill people couldn’t work, it was of importance to Port Arthur to ‘heal’ these convicts so they could start working again. And if this wasn’t enough, they also had a block with isolation cells. As you understand you got locked up in isolation and when you were allowed outside of your cell, you did get a leather head mask over you face. You weren’t allowed to talk, not allowed within a meter from another prisoner and when someone else had to walk by you had to look towards the wall. In this way you wouldn’t know who the other person was. In this block there was also a chapel where the convicts had each their own personal space, with only visibility to the preacher. And if you still hadn’t learned enough, this block also had a dark isolation cell.
In the end Port Arthur is an impressive as well as an educational site that tells a lot about the dark history of Australia and especially those of the British colonization. But if you think this history is responsible for the darkest pages of Port Arthur then you are wrong. At Sunday 28 April 1996 during a shooting spree, on site and in the area, 35 people had been killed and many people had been wounded. The shooter had been captured the next day and had been tried, found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for life without eligibility for parole.
On the way home dad, Mirjan and I made a stop at the Blowhole, Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen. This had to do with the fact we had stopped at the Tessellated Pavement at the other side of Pirates Bay that same morning, and that I’ve told them about these land marks. Although the weather had changed (on arrival at Port Arthur the sun was still shining) we have been able to take some nice photo’s, including those of the house names in Dootown. Every house here has a name where the word Doo is included, such as Doo Drop Inn, Just Doo It (Nike), Love Me Doo (Beatles), Much-A-Doo (about nothing, Shakespeare), Didgeridoo, Dr. Doolittle and the most original Doo F#@k All.
Back in the days of the colonization of Australia, Tasmania was still called Van Diemen’s Land, named after the gouvenor-general of the Dutch East Indies, who has send Abel Tasman to search for the Great South Land, resulting in the discovery of the island (it was found out later that it was an island). In this time Australia was the place where convicts were transported to, to work as a servant for the various colonists. As there were only a few colonies, they were transported to Van Diemen’s Land. These convicts have been responsible for loads of buildings and infrastructure such as you can find along the previous mentioned Heritage Highway. So far Port Arthur hasn’t been the subject. But when you committed another crime while on transportation, then you would be send to Port Arthur penal prison. You also need to imagine that there wasn’t any age limit during the days of the transportations. Due to this the youngest prisoner at Port Arthur was 7 and the oldest 92. It’s a thing you can’t imagine nowadays, not to mention the crime they committed.
At the arrival at Port Arthur I was surprised that I seemed to be a convict as well. I was given the 6 of Hearts, the card that showed my real identity. You can read it at the photo’s. They have a complete stock of cards stating the convictions which help you with the interpretation of the site in the days it was operational. After the introducing walk through the museum you get to the main part of the site, the township itself with all its historic buildings.
The site has been preserved excellent, helped by the fact that a lot of buildings had been private property (and some still are). When you look at the layout of the site and more important when you gain the information from the guided walks and the interpretation signs, you’ll get a good impression of how life was at Port Arthur. The site has different zones where you were only allowed to come if you had a certain status. And these zonal rules seemed to be obeyed well. The better your manners the more privileges you got. But on the other hand, they could be extremely sadistic as well. When you disobeyed a rule and got convicted to a certain amount of lashes from the whip, but you lost consciousness before the last one, you would be treated at the hospital. And when you were treated, you went strait back to get the remainder of your lashes. And besides a hospital they also had an asylum for mentally ill convicts. As mentally ill people couldn’t work, it was of importance to Port Arthur to ‘heal’ these convicts so they could start working again. And if this wasn’t enough, they also had a block with isolation cells. As you understand you got locked up in isolation and when you were allowed outside of your cell, you did get a leather head mask over you face. You weren’t allowed to talk, not allowed within a meter from another prisoner and when someone else had to walk by you had to look towards the wall. In this way you wouldn’t know who the other person was. In this block there was also a chapel where the convicts had each their own personal space, with only visibility to the preacher. And if you still hadn’t learned enough, this block also had a dark isolation cell.
In the end Port Arthur is an impressive as well as an educational site that tells a lot about the dark history of Australia and especially those of the British colonization. But if you think this history is responsible for the darkest pages of Port Arthur then you are wrong. At Sunday 28 April 1996 during a shooting spree, on site and in the area, 35 people had been killed and many people had been wounded. The shooter had been captured the next day and had been tried, found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for life without eligibility for parole.
On the way home dad, Mirjan and I made a stop at the Blowhole, Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen. This had to do with the fact we had stopped at the Tessellated Pavement at the other side of Pirates Bay that same morning, and that I’ve told them about these land marks. Although the weather had changed (on arrival at Port Arthur the sun was still shining) we have been able to take some nice photo’s, including those of the house names in Dootown. Every house here has a name where the word Doo is included, such as Doo Drop Inn, Just Doo It (Nike), Love Me Doo (Beatles), Much-A-Doo (about nothing, Shakespeare), Didgeridoo, Dr. Doolittle and the most original Doo F#@k All.
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