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Published: March 6th 2009
Which Card?
Each door represents a playing card that we were given on entry.DAY 118
The weather was heinous again, and we were getting slightly cheesed off with it, we were joking to each other that back in the 1800’s the convicts were sent to Australia must have thought brilliant, sunshine, but when they found they were off to Tasmania it was a different story.
I accept they said that Tasmania was just like England, but I didn’t expect it to be like a bad day in Skegness every day, or a normal day in Scotland (Bill Kelly).
Anyway we couldn’t get our lazy arses going this morning, it was too cold and it was raining, when we finally did, we decided we were definitely going to Port Arthur.
It was a really pretty drive of about 90 K’s through some lovely forestry and hilly scenery, loads of people had said to us to go to Port Arthur, as it was absolutely fantastic.
This is where we made the first mistake of the day. Lets look at the name Port Arthur, we assumed it to be a Port like the name suggests with Boats, Yachts, and shops, coffee houses and the like.
Port Arthur (Van Diemens Land)
6 of Hearts
I lifted the lid to see the fate of my Prisoner Penal Station was established in 1830, as a timber-getting camp, producing sawn logs for Government projects, and after 1833 it became a punishment station for repeat offenders from all Australian colonies, and by 1834 it housed 2000 convicts, Soldiers and civil staff.
Like we have said before, this is where the word P.O.M (E) comes from, Prisoner of Mother England. Some Australians throw this word around without a clue where it originates.
The penal station finally closed in 1877, many of the settlement buildings were pulled down or gutted by fire, but what is left there now is only a fraction of what was once there.
We paid our money $26.00 dollars each and went inside. On entering the turn style we were each given a playing card, Caroline’s was 6 of hearts and mine was the ace of spades, and you had to go down in to the exhibit to see “The fate of your Convict”.
Caroline’s was called Charles Moore and was a Tailor in London and got 7 years for being a Pick Pocket, Mine was called Robert Goldspick a shoemaker from Pulham St Mary in Norfolk who got 14 years “Transportation in
Charles Moore
A Tailor from London was sentenced for Picking Pockets. 7 years Transportation which meant being sent to Australia 1882 for Housebreaking. It was absolutely fascinating, they had excellent artefacts, and you could trace through history to see what happened to these men.
Once outside from the exhibit the grounds were huge and took us nearly all day to walk around these preserved buildings, some being in better condition than the others, but our photographs show you that. As a brief over view, there was the Commandants House, Smith O’Briens Cottage, Officers Quarters, Guard Tower, Hospital, Laundry, Paupers Mess, Asylum, Separate Prison, Junior medical Officers House, Church, Government Cottage, Parsonage, Chaplains House, Pats Cottage and Magistrates house but to name a few.
It was bracing while we were walking around, the rain was on and off too, however when we walked up to the Asylum we could smell some cooking. We decided to stop for a coffee and some hot minestrone soup. Delicious, it warmed us and set us up for the rest of the afternoon.
Port Arthur was an absolutely fantastic sight to see, and so very well done, a must do on Tasmania.
The after word in the guidebook says,
Port Arthur was the cradle of Modern Australia’s adult and
Juvenile Prisons. The principle of classification, relentless surveillance, discipline, reward and punishment, vocational education and training first expressed here as a coherent and deliberate system and are still the cornerstones of modern penal systems.
There is a modern memorial at Port Arthur, not for the convicts but for a tragedy more recent than that, just like the British Hungerford massacre, when Michael Ryan killed 16 with an automatic weapon on 19 August 1897.
On the morning of Sunday 28th April 1996, a young Hobart man armed himself with three Automatic weapons, and a large quantity of ammunition, then drove to Port Arthur. Just North of the township he entered the home of a local couple he knew and shot them both, he then drove to Port Arthur Historic site, had a meal on the decking of the Broad Arrow café, then took out a rifle from his bag and within 90 seconds had shot 32 people 20 of them died, he then moved in to the car park and shot another 4 people and wounded others.
He drove back to the house where he had started and took other hostages, but eventually killed them all; police eventually
captured him.
He was convicted of 35 counts of murder, and on each count was given a life sentence, with no eligibility for Parole.
Port Arthur have produced a leaflet detailing the facts, as they wish to protect the staff from talking about this traumatic time, it obviously still upsets people to talk about it. If you read the leaflet it will not mention his name, they do not like to use it. However this man apparently is in Prison in Risdon on Tasmania.
The gun laws have been tightened up since then and are now one of the strictest in the world, but it is sad that these things are only ever looked at after a tragedy has taken place.
We left the historic site and drove back towards camp, pulling off the road to a viewing point to see the “Blow Hole” which is where the sea eroded a cave in to the rock. However over time the roof of the cave collapsed leaving the tunnel and the “BlowHole”, when the sea thunders in it causes a splash.
A little further a long we see the Tasman Arch and the Devils kitchen, both
associated with Rock formations caused by the sea.
We were in a town call DooTown and the houses had been given fantastic names by their owners. Such as:
Didgeri-Doo
Love me -Doo
Dr Doo-Little
Do-Little
Doo-F#@k all
Doo-Drop Inn
Doo-Us
Xana-Doo
Rum-Doo
Just Doo-It
Much-a -Doo
Doo-All
Wee-Doo
Doo-Me
Mals-Doog-house ???
Caroline asked if we were on the road to Man-Doo-lay, and she reckons my jokes are bad.
Funny Little town in a pleasant sort of way, but we had a really busy interesting day it was 6.00pm so we started heading back to camp.
Our new Telstra Dongle is excellent but I am mindful of a total capacity, so Caroline and myself have agreed that if we need to upload a lot of images then we will still go to our not so favourite burger chain to upload at the moment just so we know how the capacity will last for each month.
We had driven outwards through a little town called Sorrell and knew there were some Golden Arches where we could do some uploading on the way home. We didn’t pull in there until 7.00pm and did the picture upload for
Frrreeezing and for Fish Lips, as there are quite a lot of pictures.
We get back just after 8, we sit and have a cup of tea, then whilst Caroline finishes the blog off for yesterday, I knock up a chicken curry.
We have had to borrow a blanket off the campsite as the night is so cold, we will soon be back on Mainland Australia where it is warm, but for now its time for bed.
Caroline spies a pair of my socks, she asks if I am going to wear them to bed, I said “No”, to which she replied “Good, because I am”. I wonder if Sir Edmund Hilary had this problem with Sherpa Tensing whilst climbing Everest, “Have you got my socks again Tensing? Give them back my feet are cold”!
By the way, the title of today’s blog has nothing to do with the way Caroline’s face is looking, we took the name from a little sea food restaurant on the road to Port Arthur.
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