Port Arthur was home to 12 000 convicts, both men and boys between 1830 and 1877. Tales of infamy and cruel inhumanity abound with prisoners living under threat of the lash and an experimental isolation system which often drove them to madness. Although the discipline was strict, well behaved prisoners were rewarded with easier jobs many being taught trades, reading, writing and arithmetic classes were held after supper. Escape was rare and many stayed till the end of their life, then buried in mass graves on the Isle of the Dead. Today's Port Arthur is quiet and peaceful with English oaks and green lawns rolling to the water's edge. The tranquil gardens at Port Arthur are the latest project to be completed in the ongoing restoration programme of the historic site.
There are regular guided tours which leave from the information office throughout the day and take in the penitentiary, asylum, officers' headquarters, Commandment residence, medical officer's home, Smith O'Brien's Cottage and the notorious Model Prison. The Model Prison was operated on the theory that complete isolation was an effective form of rehabilitation. Prisoners were not allowed contact with each other and visitors can inspect the chapel where wooden partitions isolated each of the inmates.
A ferry trip to the Isle of the Dead is a chilling experience. As night falls guided ghost tours operate and there are screenings of the classic Australian film, For the Term of his N atural Life, shot at Port Arthur in 1926.
History
The regime was never a subtle one: Governor George Arthur, responsible for all the convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, believed that a convict’s “whole fate should be … the very last degree of misery consistent with humanity”. Gradually, Port Arthur became a self-supporting industrial centre: the timber industry grew into shipbuilding, there was brickmaking and shoemaking, wheat-growing, and even a flour mill.
There was also a separate prison for boys – “the thiefs prison” – at Point Puer, where the inmates were taught trades. From the 1840s until transport of convicts ceased in 1853, the penal settlement grew steadily, the early timber constructions being replaced by brick and stone buildings. The lives of the labouring convicts contrasted sharply with those of the prison officers and their families, who had their ornamental gardens, drama club, library and cricket fields.
The years after transport ended were in many ways more horrific than those that preceded them, as physical beatings were replaced by psychological punishment. In 1852 the Model Prison, based on the spoked-wheel design of Pentonville Prison in London, opened. Here, prisoners could be kept in tiny cells in complete isolation and absolute silence; they were referred to by numbers rather than names, and wore hoods whenever they left their cells.
The prison continued to operate until 1877, by now incorporating its own mental asylum full of ex-convicts as well as a geriatric home for ex-convict paupers. The excellent interpretive centre (daily 9am–5pm), housed in the former asylum, provides much more detail on the prison’s sad history through artefacts and texts.
In 1870 Port Arthur was popularized by Marcus Clarke’s romantic tragedy, For the Term of his Natural Life. The public became fascinated by its buildings and the tragedy behind them, and soon after the prison closed, guided tours were offered by the same crumbling men who had been wrecked by the regime. In the 1890s the town around the prison was devastated by bushfires that left most buildings in ruins.
Main Sights
There are more than sixty buildings, some of which – like the poignant prison chapel – are furnished and restored. Others, like the ivy-covered church, are picturesque ruins set in a landscape of green lawns, shady trees and paths sloping down to the cove. The beautiful setting makes it look more like a serene, old-world university campus than a prison, and indeed, the benign feeling of the place seems to have a capacity to absorb tragedy: another horrific chapter in Port Arthur’s history occurred in April 1996, when the massacre of 35 tourists and local people by a lone gunman made international headlines. The café where most of the people were killed has been partially dismantled; the walls will remain and a memorial will be built here with a garden around the site. The simple cross on the waterfront which stands in remembrance will now remain permanently. Visitors are requested to act sensitively and not ask the staff about the tragedy.
From the Port Arthur jetty you can take the MV Bundeena across the bay to visit the Isle of the Dead (summer only, frequent departures; $7), Port Arthur’s cemetery from 1833 to 1877. A one-hour tour of the graveyard is included, which gives you ample opportunity to look at the resting places of 1100 convicts, asylum inmates, paupers and free men.
If you’re staying overnight in Port Arthur, join the nightly lantern-lit Historic Ghost Tour (1hr 30min; $12; bookings on tel 03/6250 2539), which features lovingly researched and hauntingly retold tales of the settlement’s past as you wander through the ruins.
Practicalities
There are various places to stay on the outskirts of Port Arthur. The Port Arthur Motor Inn, on Remarkable Cave Road, is just off the site, overlooking the ruined church; it’s a pleasant place, with a bar open to the public – the only place nearby to drink – and reasonable counter meals. Just across the road is the Roseview Youth Hostel on Champ Street. The spacious Port Arthur Villas, just across Remarkable Cave Road from the site, has the amenities of a motel and full kitchens in the units.
There’s an indifferent temporary café in the administrative centre, which serves fast food, but two better places to eat are at the Frances Langford Tea Rooms, in the restored 1930s policemen’s quarters, and the Museum Tea Rooms in the interpretive centre.