Port Arthur

Welcome to Port Arthur (this is the church)

I ran and got on a tour to go to Port Arthur. It took us a while to get there because you have to go South and onto a separate island. On the way down we stopped at the Tasman National Park. We saw some absolutely beautiful sights. The rugged coastline, Devils Kitchen, and a some other sights. Tasmania has beautiful mountains. It looks green from a distance but it is quite dry. Tasmania is now the most dry state in Australia. The land is pretty brown except for where they irrigate it. Oh and it isn't a very ritzy island. The houses are all pretty normal and not very expensive. You can buy beach front property for $320,000. Oh and there are only half a million people on the entire island. Approximately half the people are on some type of government assistance. There really aren't that many jobs. Mostly jobs come from resources, a few factories, and some small businesses.

The Coast on the way to Port Arthur

Tasman National Park

Bushes in Tasman National Park

Me in Tasman National Park

We finally passed over the small land mass that connects the main island to the island where Port Arthur is. Its called Eagleneck Bay. Port Arthur is an 1800s prison that was where the British would send their repeat offenders to serve their sentence. Port Arthur was only for men. It is a large and beautiful. There aren't walls. The geography is the walls. There are dense forests and coasts surrounding the island and the only way off was on a narrow passage way (Eagleneck) and there were dogs that would man that are making sure prisoners didn't escape. These are some pictures of Port Arthur.

Another view of the church. The church at Port Arthur (where soldiers, freemen, and even prisoners were all forced to go to. It was supposed to be part of the rehabilitation turning them into upright citizens.)

Me inside the remains of the church

One of the guard tower

One of the homes at Point Arthur in which the freemen with their families lived

Does this look like a prison to you?

Government Gardens

The penitentiary paupers mess

Then we went on a cruise to Isle of the Dead which is straight out from Port Arthur in the bay. There were 1100 prisoners, free men, and guards that were buried there. There were some really old headstones. It was really cool seeing these old buildings and you could inside many of them and see the furniture and how they lived.

Isle of the Dead

Graves of the freemen although some convicts do have headstones.

Later after the trip home I went and got some fantastic clam chowder. It was really good but it had three real clams in it. I'm not a big fan of real clams. I just like them in my soup from the can. Then I ended up walking to Battery Point which is a really old residential area. It is where many of the grand Georgian homes are. Then I ran into the coastline again and I picked up some sea shells and watched the ships go by.