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Published: October 27th 2013
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Prisoners before 1850 had to endure horrid floggings and wearing of heavy chains, etc. But after 1850, a new governor thought he would change the type of punishment that would change the behaviours. He built a separate prison where reform would come through isolation and contemplation. There could be no noise whatsoever. Even the guards had to wear slippers. The prisoners were kept in their tiny cells 23 hours a day. During the other hour they were allowed to walk in a tiny courtyard outside. I am sure lots of these men ended up in the asylum next door!
The Isle of the Dead was a small island, where guards and prisoners were buried. There are decorated tombstones for some of the important people of the time. Some years later a few of the tombs were dug up and no bones were found. Leads you to believe that burials took place by dumping bodies in the sea!!! There buildings went though many phases, for example, the Commandant’s house became a hotel. Interesting that the lady who ran the hotel had a tiny room at the back and her daughter climbed a ladder to get to her bed in the attic.
Apparently, the rocker in the room does rock for no apparent reason.
The next day we were off to Hobart. Built at the base of Mount Wellington, the city has very steep hills and several long bridges. As usual, it took us awhile to find our hotel. Coming into a new city, you are always disoriented. Wonder what we did in Europe 49 years ago with only maps to go by! We did wander through a huge market. Lots of food and food products, books (very expensive here, so people buy lots second hand!). Did find Roo’s Christmas present! Went to the Cathedral for Mass. It was much smaller than other Cathedrals. And we found out there was only 1 other Catholic Church in Hobart. The Uniting seems to be very strong here.(I assume it is our United church). We lucked out and found a parking spot at the wharf and had Fish and Chips for supper. Notice the bottle in the picture. This is the kind of bottle always used to serve water. The next day we drove to a little town called Richmond. The main street was very crowded. It was lunchtime for us and we did
manage to find a bakery on one of the sidestreets. There were lots of tables outside, but no empty ones. So we did eat inside and did some people watching. We find that children here are generally well-behaved, but there was one, about 3 or 4. Could have passed for Anne from PEI! But her hair had several colors to go with the natural red. The lineup to order food was very long and the mother was having great difficulty dealing with the full-blown tantrum. I don’t think that I have mentioned that there are an unusually high number of redheads here in Australia. When you see a group of children, there is at least one with red hair. Shelley, you would be jealous! After lunch we walked up the street to the tiny Anglican church ,called St Paul the Physician. Inside was a history and it gave the names of the first man and woman married there. So Ruthy, did you know you must have relatives here? The groom’s name was Chambers!
Monday, we went to see the Women’s Prison. Can’t imagine how 500 women and children lived in this place that was built to hold 200. Leaving
there we drove on Shelley-no-go roads to the top of Mount Wellington. The views were incredible. Hobart is very spread out with several bays. Vegetation changed as we got towards the top. We met one walker and several bikers. They had to be in top-notch shape. Again, thank you Maria for your jacket!! Lots of houses are for sale. And again, we ask, what do these people do to make a living? But what a view to look at every day!
We drove down the south part of the island and stopped for tea and scones with jam and cream! English customs are still in evidence all over Australia, but Tasmania is more like our Victoria. Our hotel was the first pub hotel we have stayed at. There were 20 rooms upstairs and a gambling facility, restaurants and a bottle facility (these are like liquor stores at home) downstairs. This physical set up is pretty much the same across the country whether in a big place or a small one for pub hotels. We were very excited since this was the first place that had free Wi-Fi (the minicomputer still did not set up) and we had to start
the IPad in the hall and then go into the room with
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