Back in the early 1900's the house operated as a hotel and when the film crew of the movie "For the Term of his Natural Life" was in town they stayed here.
The Commandant's Residence.
The road leading to the Commandant's house with the military barracks on the right.
Convicts were buried on the lower side of the island on unmarked graves. Everybody else was buried on the high side and their head stones can still be seen.
The Island of the Dead.
The ruins of the Broad Arrow Cafe where the Memorial stands today.
The shell of the Broad Arrow Cafe where twenty people died. It is a very sad place to say the least.
The events of 1996 are still very raw.
The cross bearing the names of the victims of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
The year the church was built.
The ruins of the non-concecrated cathedral where catholic & protestant convicts attended services until it was destroyed in the bushfires of 1897.
The cells for convicts in isolation.
The water fountain in the central gardens.
View from the bay.
Leaving Karsten & Annisa's house in Hobart.Sunday 1 November.
Arrived in Port Arthur at around 5 pm and went straight into the visitor's centre to book my walk tour for the next morning. Because the pass is valid for two days I made the most of the time left that afternoon to walk around the site to take some photos.
After that I set up camp at the near ground where I cooked some dinner and spent the rest of the night in the tent trying to make inroads into Lois Pryce's book Lois on the Loose which I brought with me for the trip.
The following morning, Monday, I was up early and ready to take my guided tour walk through this amazing historical site. If you're ever in this part of Tasmania and are a bit of a History buff like me? Port Arthur is definitely for you.
You'll learn a lot about what was it actually like living in a penal colony in the mid 1800's and how it has shaped the country Australia is today. Port Arthur at the time of its establishment was a radical new experiment in criminal's punishment, where the first steps were being taken to change the "lock them up and throw away the key" attitude with one of trying to rehabilitate convicts by way of teaching them a trade so that they might actually be of use to society when their sentences were completed. Something that is at the heart of today's penal system in all western countries. Or at least it is supposed to be....
Arrived in Port Arthur at around 5 pm and went straight into the visitor's centre to book my walk tour for the next morning. Because the pass is valid for two days I made the most of the time left that afternoon to walk around the site to take some photos.
After that I set up camp at the near ground where I cooked some dinner and spent the rest of the night in the tent trying to make inroads into Lois Pryce's book Lois on the Loose which I brought with me for the trip.
The following morning, Monday, I was up early and ready to take my guided tour walk through this amazing historical site. If you're ever in this part of Tasmania and are a bit of a History buff like me? Port Arthur is definitely for you.
You'll learn a lot about what was it actually like living in a penal colony in the mid 1800's and how it has shaped the country Australia is today. Port Arthur at the time of its establishment was a radical new experiment in criminal's punishment, where the first steps were being taken to change the "lock them up and throw away the key" attitude with one of trying to rehabilitate convicts by way of teaching them a trade so that they might actually be of use to society when their sentences were completed. Something that is at the heart of today's penal system in all western countries. Or at least it is supposed to be....
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