Port Arthur

Port Arthur Penitentiary Remains

We have heard the phrase that Australia was built on the backs of convicts.  Until Port Arthur, we did not really understand what that meant.  David will post and comment on the Convict Trail that we have encountered thus far in Tasmania.  We do know that when Australia was a colony, Britain used its lands to transport those they didn't want on their own, particularly convicts guilty of heinous crimes, those who received up to ten years for theft (such as stealing a loaf of bread), and those not considered loyal to the crown (including Americans).  Those convicts sentenced to transportation (shipped away from England to Australia) then provided the hard labor and crafts to build infrastructure from buildings to roads or to work a myriad of tasks for local landowners.

Port Arthur was one of the largest penitentiary colonies in Tasmania.  During its ten years of existence, 146,000 men, 34,000 women, and 3,500 children (ranging from age eight and averaging age fourteen), came through this area.

While here in Port Arthur, we were reminded of man's inhumanity to man.  We learned that the British considered children as young as seven years of age responsible for their actions.  We did not find a great deal of information about the women prisoners... perhaps that was a good thing.

Our entrance fee to Port Arthur included a ferry ride across the bay.  From our vantage point on the ferry, we could see foundational bricks... all that remained of the children's encampment which housed those 3,500 children.  We also passed the Isle of the Dead, a small island with 1,100 people buried on it.  Most were prisoners, their graves making up the lower section of the island.  The center core had graves of those who worked to keep the prison going and their families, with the top-most section dedicated to those with status.

Our guide spoke of a woman buried on the island who died in childbirth with her second child.  With no one to nurse the surviving infant, the child was doomed to death until the leading officer's wife, a mother of twelve, took the child from her grieving soldier father and reared the baby until she was weaned.  The family still pays tribute to the mother's grave.

It is the individual stories that touch my heart.  I admit that I cannot grasp the whole of it.  We spent the night in a nearby holiday camp.  Perhaps to soothe my soul, we were surrounded by wildlife.  Most, if not all, had become accustomed to humans.  Dare I say they were moochers?  We discovered a nearby camp feeding no less that two dozen parrots.  The children screeched in delight as the birds landed on their arms, shoulders, and heads.

David opened a bag of chips, and a parrot promptly landed on his shoulder.  At one point, the parrot tried to shove his head into the bag.

Later a dozen pademelons (miniature wallabies) surrounded us.

We are asking our Aussie friends to tell us their feelings about the convict system before posting more about it, hoping for a clearer perspective and understanding.  It is, after all, their history.