Port Arthur

The next day (Saturday) was Salamanca Market day. We mixed it with the crowd, bought our lunch and departed for Port Arthur.

One highlight of our Tasmania Adventures was Port Arthur. The site has just received World Heritage listing and has a history of an enigma wrapped in a  paradox within a mystery. You either love Sir George Arthur or you despise him.

Governor Arthur was most pleased with himself in relocating the prime penal settlement to Port Arthur… so pleased that he named the area after himself. In 1823, at the age of 39 he was appointed Governor having had previous appointments at British Honduras. His autocratic and authoritarian style is reported to have lead to his recall to London in 1837 by which time he was one of the wealthiest people in the colony. His stint in Tasmania did his career no harm for he went on to govern Upper Canada and finally became the Governor of Bombay.

It appears that right from the start, he intended to use convict labour to build the colony (and perhaps look after his friends and family in a financial way). He had the coastline around Hobart surveyed to identify the best place to combine an industrial site with a high level of security. He was delighted to find that Port Arthur was only 8-hours sailing from Hobart (could be completed in daylight) and was positioned on a peninsula with land access restricted by an isthmus only 200 meters wide. The convicts were not good swimmers and he spread rumours of vicious sharks patrolling the shallow bays around Port Arthur.

Initially he set the convicts to work building the accommodation and infrastructure needed for the settlement. In the early period, he used severe punishment as the motivator to get the jobs done. Port Arthur earned its reputation as a hell hole and that is where the reputation of Sir George as a cruel and heartless tyrant sits in history.

The guides at Port Arthur now emphasise an aspect of history not well accepted. Recent interpretations of history show Port Arthur as the major industrial site within Australia out producing Sydney Town and other smaller sites. Historians have looked at the buildings constructed at Port Arthur and now postulate that Arthur ceased to rely on violence, but adopted a code of supervision based on a belief that the evil minds of convicts could be cured by education, good health, isolation to ponder one’s misdeeds and primarily, religious instruction. A long list of pedantic rules of punishment and reward were exactly applied to continuously resort the inmates into forming groups that reflected the state of evil in their minds. The ‘good guys’ lived on the top floor of the barracks, ate well, had reasonable work-loads and had lots of time to take instruction in developing new skills. They were listed to be assigned to settlers to serve out their sentences away from the goal. The barracks had the bottom two levels for those committing minor offences. Solitary confinement in the middle level was in groups and these inmates were give less food and required to work longer hours. The bottom level of the barracks was where a more severe form of isolation and penalties were applied. These convicts were kept in separate rooms and received more severe punishments. The weight of leg-irons lessened the higher the level of the floor you were on.

But there were separate buildings for the convicts committing more severe breaches of the code. There were the white rooms (to minimise sensory stimulation) where you lost your name and were given a number. The only time you were allowed to make a noise was at Sunday’s religious instruction where hymn singing was encouraged. Convicts sat in the Church with wooden partitions keeping them from seeing the faces of the other convicts. This period of isolation was to encourage convicts the introspection needed to adjust their acceptance of God’s wishes and turn away from breaking the code.

If you failed the white room ordeal and did not seek salvation, you could be committed to the black room… total darkness until you repented or went insane. Governor Arthur constructed an Infirmary to nurse those convicts who became insane.

Did this elaborate system of punishment and rewards work? Well, Port Arthur became the centre of ship building in Australia. It exported timber all around the world. It produced most of the bricks used in the construction of Hobart. The complexity and quality of produce coming from the site would be possible only with motivated well trained workers.

If you are still unsure if Arthur is a saint or sinner, consider his treatment of juvenile offenders. He established a separate camp for juniors on Point Puer that grew in size to match the main goal. The junior offenders had good food, good shelter and no alcohol. They had instruction to enable them to develop valuable commercial skills. They were placed on settlers’ farms to continue to develop their work ethics. Port Arthur was the first instance where the treatment of juvenile offenders was designed to build their skills for a prosperous life in the community (rather than focussing on punishment). The first juvenile goal in the UK is supposed to have been fashioned on the principles developed at Port Arthur.

Beautiful Coastline      

The coast line around Port Arthur is picturesque. We were captivated by the Tessellated Pavement, the Tasman Blowhole, the Tasman Arch and the Devils Kitchen. The sea cliffs are 300 meters in height… reputed the tallest in the southern hemisphere.

Another intriguing feature was a small seaport where residents have named their homes with quaint doo-goody names like 'Doo-Litttle', 'Wee-Doo', 'Love-me-Doo' etc, etc. From nothing, this town has put itself on the tourist map at no cost and just a little imagination.