Port Arthur Prison

In the early afternoon, we reached Port Arthur under a clear blue sky. The general admission tickets start with a boat ride around the harbor with some information to orient you to the place. Above is a view of the main prison dormitory.



Along the eastern side of the port is the location of what was once a shipyard where the prisoners built a wide array of boats. Some, we were told even tried to escape in a boat they built, but as you might imagine, were not successful.

The opening of the harbor to the sea is a fine, wide passage, easy for sizeable ships to navigate.

There is a peninsula of land reaching out into the harbor and this is called Point Puer. Puer is Latin for "boy" and this is the place where a separate prison was built for boys. A total of 3,000 were resident here as some time or other and the youngest was 9 years old.

Out a ways in the harbor from Point Puer, is the Isle of the Dead. This is the cemetery for the port; both convicts and free are buried here. Few markers remain.

Back on shore we get a closer look at the main prison dormitory building.

Up on the hill behind the prisoner housing is the hospital.

After transportation ended the site was operated as a prison on until the 1870's. The last prisoner left in 1877. The site then fell into disues and decay.

It was a full service prison. There was a chapel, a hospital, and space for the elderly convicts. There was also a place for the mentally imbalanced.

In spite of being a prison, the building was built with style and an eye for a structure beyond the mere functional.

It felt really odd, in a way, to have such a beautiful day in a place of such lovely surroundings in a stop where so many people suffered. It is also the site of the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996 where 35 people were killed and 23 wounded. This incident sparked outrage across Australian and guns were hence tightly controlled. As a result, no other such mass killing has a occurred in the country. If only America could be so sensible.