Port Arthur

Day 6. Certainly packing loads of touristy stuff in with Robyn & Arthur in the week they are spending with us.

 

 

Spending the day at Port Arthur.  Bob & I used our "Ticket of Leave" ticket we bought when we came here with Elizabeth & Norman couple weeks ago.  $6 each & valid for 2 years

 

 

The Penitentiary 1857 the two lower floors contained 136 cells for "prisoners of bad character".
Top floor provided space for 480 better behaved convicts to sleep in bunks
 

Shipwright house 1834 near the Dockyard slipway
During its 15 years of operation it produced 16 large decked vessels & around 150 small open boats

Clerk of Work's House 1848

Dockyard Slipway 1834 - 1848  The convicts built many boats from whalers, row boats etc

Isle of the Dead.  1833

Between 1833 & 1877 around 1100 people were buried at the settlement's cemetery.  The Isle of Dead is the final resting place for military & civil officers, their wives & children & convicts

Lime kiln  1854

 

Cute Echidna
Now you see me & now you don't
We were just walking along the pathway & spotted him/her

 

Row of gum trees planted by the convicts

Memorial garden
On Sunday 28 April 1996, a tragic chapter was added to Port Arthur's history when a gunman took the lives of 35 people & physically wounded 19 others in & around the Port Arthur historic site
The Memorial garden incorporates the shell of the Broad Arrow Cafe where 20 people were killed during the massacre & has been created as a place of remembrance & reflection
 

Government gardens 1853

 

Government gardens

 

Government cottage 1853

 

 

 

The Church 1837

The Church represents the important role of religion in convict reform at Port Arthur.
Up to 1100 people attended compulsory services here each Sunday.
Much of the decorative stonework & joinery in the church was crafted by the boys from the Point Puer Boy's prison

When the bells started to toll, I got a very cold feeling & goose bumps & needed a cuddle & hug from mys sister Robyn

 

 

St David's Church 1927 still in use

 

 

Roman Catholic Chaplain's House 1843

Junior Medical Officer's House 1848

 

 

 

 

 

Soldiers' Memorial Avenue 1918

Farm Overseers Cottage

The Seperate Prison 1849

The Seperate Prison was designed to deliver a new method of punishment, of reforming the convicts through isolation & comtemplation.  Convicts were locked for 23 hours each day in single cells.
Here they ate, slept & worked, with just 1 hour a day allowed for exercise, alone, in a high-walled yard

Each convict was placed in a cubicle to attend church, this was so they could have no contact with other convicts, could only focus on the preacher

This was another place where I got the cold feeling again, when the choir started singing.
I had to leave the room   SPOOKY !!!

Gate into the exercise yard

 

The trio leaving the solitary confinement cells

The Asylum 1868

 

The original fresh water stream

 

 

 

Smith's O'Briens Cottage 1840's
This cottage housed one of Port Arthur's most famous political prisoners -
Irish Protestant Parliamentarian, William Smith O'Brien.
Transported for life, he was sent to Port Arthur after an attempted escape from Maria Island

View from the hill

 

Robyn sitting on steps of the hospital

 

The happy foursome

 

 

 

The Penitentiary