Travel Guide Port Arthur

Port Arthur was the ideal prison for the British authorities of the time. The peninsula was connected to the rest of Tasmania only by a narrow strip of land known as Eaglehawk Neck. These few meters were guarded by dogs and the waters were infested with sharks. The restored ruins of what was the island's main penal colony between 1830 and 1877 have now become a tourist center. Most of the 30 buildings, which formed a veritable small town capable of housing over a thousand prisoners and their guards, were destroyed by bush fires at the end of the last century. Today, the imposing walls of the main penitentiary and its hospital, the neo-Gothic church, the prison for prisoners condemned to total silence and the asylum can still be seen. There are many tales of cruelty and infamy in Port Arthur, where discipline was strict, but living conditions were not much harsher than in European prisons of the time. Convicts could learn a trade, and literacy classes were offered. A prison for young boys was built at Point Puer to educate convicted children. Once their sentence had been served, some convicts were given a plot of land, while others were placed as servants or given the most arduous tasks on the plantations. A 20-minute cruise takes you around "Isle of the Dead", where convicts and jailers lie side by side for eternity.