Norman's Blog: Port Arthur

Port Arthur

We left Launceston to drive to Port Arthur. We stopped in Campbell, named by Governor MacQuarie after his wife, Elizabeth Campbell. There is a huge tree here, a monument to tree felling, one of the first industries in the recently colonised new land known then as Van Diemens Land after Anthony van Dieman, the Governor General of the Dutch East india company.

Monument to timber felling.

A statue o Eliza Furlong who had emigrated to Australia and had brought with her a prize winning herd of merino sheep. She was offered a aprcel of land nearby in order to tempt her and her flock to the area. The area has since become the centre of the merino wool industry in Australia.

The number of deaths on the roads, a reminder to drive more carefully.

In the pavements, there are a lot of bricks to record the names of those transported to Australia. Each brick gives the name of the convict, his age, the boat he was transported on his crime and what happened to him.

Some were very young...

...this one was twelve years old but the youngest recorded convict was just nine years old.

A modern bridge over the river, named Elizabeth after Elizabeth Campbell...

...and from the bridge can be seen the brick built bridge, built by convicts using more than a million bricks.

Another view of the bridge. The river wasn't here originally, the bridge was built on dry land and then the river was diverted to flow under it, again all done by hand by convicts.

The 42 degree monument. The island that became Tasmania was divided into two counties along the 42 degreelatitude, the north being called Cornwall and the south being called Buckinghamshire. It didn't last long but the rivalry between the two halves continues.

Gajahs...colourful birds but they ignored us when we were on the minibus but as soon as we stopped out...

...they flew away.

We were stopping in Ross where there are information boards on the 42 degree monument.

The Denison canal cut through the Tasman peninsula in 1903 that cut off a long and perilous jouney around the peninsula.

Another view of the canal.

Eaglehawk Neck. The authorities were looking for a new place to build a prison. They made the whole peninsula a prison and only needed to patrol the 50 metre wide neck. They used guards and hungry dogs known as the Dog Line to patrol the only route off the peninsula.

Billy Hunt was one of the convicts who discovered a dead kangaroo. He skinned it and used it to dress up as a kangaroo to cross the Dog Line. But kangaroos were also meat for the dogs and the hungry and underfed guards. Billy was shot at and surrendered and returned to the prison.

The Port Arthur historic site, named after Governor George Arthur. It was developed in 1830 and used until 1877. It housed second offenders from elsewhere in the colony and many of the 170,000 convicts transported to Australia.

The former flour mill, built by the convicts to grind flour for the inmates that became a prison.

We had a trip around the harbour...

...to see the Isle of the Dead, where convicts and guards were buried but only the guards had tombstones, the convicts were buried in unmarked graves.