16/01/2026
The weather is appropriately bleak on the day we visit Port Arthur – the site of much misery, misfortune and massacre. Under the guise of deterring crime, the British Empire 🇬🇧 sent 166,000 men, women and children to Australia on penal transports between 1787 and 1868. Over 3,000 convict-related remains across this island continent bear witness to the Empire’s use of penal transportation and forced labour as a strategic tool of expansion. In 2010, eleven of these sites were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List 🌐 as the Australian Convict Sites. Port Arthur, one of five Convict Sites in Tasmania, was established in September 1830 to mill timber 🪵🪵🪵 producing sawn logs for government projects. Named after the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land 1824 - 1836 – The Right Honourable Sir George Arthur – who, in 1833, selected the site as an ideal location for a “secondary offenders” prison housing ‘hardened’ convicts who re-offended in Australia. The Right Honourable Sir George Arthur – responsible for the repression and persecution of the Aboriginal population in the Black War 🪃🪃 also executed 260 people during his term in office, leaving some bodies hanging for months. Charles O'Hara Booth was appointed commandant of Port Arthur in 1833. Under his command the township of Port Arthur was laid out on an extensive scale, harbour construction carried out and reclamation undertaken. An efficient semaphore telegraph system was developed to help arrest escapees. Booth’s administration of the convict system was extremely efficient. The idea was that prisoners could be reformed whilst still being punished. A Separate Prison, established in 1853 signalled a shift from physical to psychological punishment. Here a “Silent System” was implemented with prisoners being hooded and made to stay silent – resulting in mental illness for many who ended up in the Asylum conveniently located next door 🤯 Nonetheless, George Arthur described Booth as 'kind and humane, active and most determined'. Discussions between Arthur and Booth lead to the 1834 establishment of Point Puer – the first boys’ prison in the British Empire 👨👦👦👨👦👨👦👦 located across the harbour from Port Arthur. Its aim was “to train convict boys in some useful trade and to reform them so that they would be useful citizens”. More than 3,000 boys - as young as nine years - passed through Point Puer during its operation. Like the adults, the boys were used in hard labour such as stone cutting 🪨⚒🪨⚒🪨 and construction 🧱🧱🧱 One of Australia's first non-denominational churches, built in a Gothic Revival style was constructed at Port Arthur ⛪ Attendance at the weekly Sunday service was compulsory for the prison population. Critics of the new system noted that it seemed to have negligible impact on a prisoner's reformation 🙄 Little wonder! Despite its reputation as a pioneering institution for the new, enlightened view of imprisonment, Port Arthur was as harsh and brutal as other penal settlements. The use of psychological punishment, compounded with no hope of escape (only three prisoners ever managed to do so) made it one of the worst. Some tales suggest that prisoners committed murder (an offence punishable by death) just to escape the desolation of life in this place. Which brings to mind a line from Bob Dylan’s ‘Huck’s Tune’ – “in this version of death called life”. The Isle of the Dead 💀💀💀 was the final destination for all who died at Port Arthur. Of the 1,646 graves recorded to exist there 🪦🪦🪦 only 180 - those of prison staff and military personnel - are marked. The prison closed in 1877. One full day here (although the entrance ticket allows for 2 consecutive days) is more than enough for us to appreciate both the natural beauty and the absolute horror of Port Arthur.
