No Fixed Abode: Convicts in the family?

Mon 15 Feb 2016 - Port Arthur,World Heritage Site

Off out by 8am and on the Tasman Highway driving down to Port Arthur, the penal settlement, for the whole day. We arrived there early to avoid the potential coach loads of orientals who apparently visit this place. On entry you are given a playing card each which identifies for you a named convict in Rogues Gallery and you can follow this person’s plight at the prison through the extensive exhibits.

Our ticket price included a 40 minute walking tour and 20 minute harbour cruise and we joined the tour at 10.30 with a young guide who helped our understanding of how the convicts arrived by ship from Australia, were processed and managed through the system starting in work gangs clearing the land and if troublesome were put in leg irons and worked in chain gangs. If you were skilled, you were used as blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers etc and often taught these to the other convicts to give them a skilled trade as part of their rehab. And within the same Port Arthur community were the families of the military, the women and children who within the grounds, attended school, had parties, regattas, literary evenings and beautiful gardens as a place of sanctuary.

Established in 1830 as a penal station and was a timber getting camp, using convict labour to produce sawn logs for government projects. In 1833 it was used as a punishment station for all repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. So the original convicts who were transported from UK to Australia if they re-offended there they were sent to Port Arthur. Typically sentences were minimum 7 years (stealing a silk hankie, some lace), 14 and 21 years to life (often for stealing a sheep up to manslaughter). This place then became a complete settlement, run by the military and some free men with their families they lived their lives in stark contrast to the convict population within the same boundary of Port Arthur. Basically the place was built by the convicts for themselves.

By 1840 there were more than 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff living there and it was a major industrial settlement producing worked stone, bricks, furniture, clothing, shoes/boots, boats and even ships. When convict transportation ended in 1853 Port Arthur became an institution for ageing, physically and mentally ill convicts and finally closed in 1877. Many of the buildings were destroyed by bush fires or dismantled and gradually buildings were sold and the area became a small township renamed Carnarvon. Unfortunately first hand stories from some convicts made the place a major visitor attraction and the 1920s saw the buildings turn into hotels, shops and museums and the name was changed back to Port Arthur.

It was a fascinating day walking around the remaining buildings from the convict areas, the military district with the Guards tower and officers quarters. The commandant's house was the highest building on the hill and overlooked the complete settlement, quite a modest 4 room home at the start and then as each of the 10 commandants during the lifetime of the place moved in they made renovations and added rooms. The convicts were originally housed in rough wooden huts but as the numbers increased the flour mill and granary was converted into four storeys with 2 lower floors of 136 cells for prisoners of bad character and the top floor for 480 better behaved ones and slept in bunks. There was a workshop next to this for the working or training of the convicts.

The eeriest building of all was the separate prison. This was designed for a new method of punishment, of reforming convicts through isolation and contemplation. Convicts were locked up for 23 hours each day in single cells.They ate, slept and worked with just one hour a day allowed for exercise alone, in a high walled yard sectioned off like quarters of a circle. They were kept in silence and at any time they were visible to another person they had to wear a hessian cap which had a piece of cloth attached to drop down and cover their faces with two tiny holes for their eyes. The chapel was part of this building and the pews were staggered front to back and all faced forward, with individual upright coffin like compartments enclosed each side so they couldn’t see each other. Facing forwards meant they could see only the clergy.

There were many tales of convicts who tried to escape, one who disguised himself as a kangaroo and bounded out but the watch tower saw him and shot what they thought was a roo and he had to quickly abandon his costume and surrender. Through the strict regime many convicts served their time and were released as free men, rehabilitated and skilled as blacksmiths, shipbuilders and shoemakers. Ironically at one point there were too many shoemakers in Tasmania and many hit on hard times and were caught re-offending ending back in Port Arthur.

The day had been quite cold and windy and late in the afternoon is absolutely hammered down so we legged it to the museum.The museum offered you the opportunity to check names in its computer to see if anyone with your name may have passed through Port Arthur. Jarvis produced a list of around 8 men and Hares only 2. Interestingly one of the Jarvis details showed of the arrival date, the ship, the place where transported from, the misdemeanour (felony), and the sentence.

All very intriguing and obviously needs more research.

We rounded off the day running back in the rain to jump in the car at 7pm and stopped off at a bay with a tessellated pavement on the shoreline. As we got back in the car the sun shone for a few minutes as it set leaving a rainbow. We took the long drive home and arrived to a delicious pasta dinner Libby had prepared for us and exhausted had an early night.