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Australia 2002

© Mill House

 

The penitentiary

Tasmania

 

 

Port Arthur Historic Site - The history:

Australia's first white settlement was established in 1788 in Port Jackson (now Sydney) by captain Arthur Phillip of The First Fleet.

With the declaration of independence of the United States of America, The British government was looking for an alternative place to dump its criminals from overflowing British prisons. Australia was selected as the new penal colony for the years to come. These criminals were mostly poor people, often convicted for 7 years for stealing nothing more than a bread.

 

Closeup of the main prison building

 

With little knowledge  of the land, the first settlement in Port Jackson was ill prepared, and only barely managed to survive.

Convicts in the new colony were put to work, building roads and constructing houses. By the turn of the 19th century. Sydney was on its way to self sufficiency.

Because of the harsh conditions, there were frequent outbreaks of prison uprisings. The worst offenders were sent to the penal colony of Port Arthur in Van Diemen Land, as Tasmania was known around that time. The penal colony opened in 1830. Here the prisoners had to work and live under appalling conditions.

The hospital

 

Port Arthur is located on the Tasman Peninsula. The peninsula is more or less seperated from the main island by a narrow passage: Eaglehawk Neck. Together with the cold surrounding waters, this made escape virtually impossible.

While sending prisoners to Australia was abandoned in England in 1840, the prison remained open until 1877, but with much improvement to the facilities and conditions for the prisoners. In total over 12000 prisoners served in the period from 1830 to 1877.

 

Smith O'Brien's cottage

 

This cottage was originally built for the assistant superintendents. In 1849 the Irish political prisoner William Smith O'Brien was placed there. O'Brien was sentenced to death for his part as a leader of the 1848 Young Ireland rebellion, but his sentence was changed into life imprisonment at Port Arthur. O'Brien wrote his autobiography from this house. He was released in 1854 on condition that he stayed outside the United Kingdom. He settled with his family in Brussels. In 1856 he was allowed to return to Ireland. He contributed to the "Nation" newspaper but kept himself apart from politics and died in 1864.

 

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