Old Hobart Town & Port Arthur

Headed off from Hobart at about 9.00am with Richmond my first stop. It is an amazing old town, full of heritage buildings and, along with Stanley, a place I would have appreciated some more time to explore. The reason for my visit was a little bit kitsch. Firstly I wanted to see the oldest bridge in Australia, but I also wanted to see "Old Hobart Town". It's a miniature world recreating Hobart circa 1820 in 1/16th scale. I've always been a sucker for that kind of stuff.

Old Bridge

The little people were incredibly cute and were posed in many comical situations, falling from tress, getting drunk, falling from wagons, that sort of thing. I was revelling in it as I was there only customer for much of my visit. A coach then disgorged a load of pushy, noisy old people who totally wrecked the ambience of the place. I consoled myself with the fact that they wouldn't be with us much longer. So smiling sweetly I left. 

From circa 1820 I headed to circa 1830 (being when Port Arthur was originally founded as a logging camp). In 1833 it became a prison where they sent recidivists (habitual criminal offenders). Insert dramatic music and have a serious voice over saying something along the lines of "the very worst of the worst were sent to Port Arthur, only the lucky ones made it out alive......here is their story" It ceased being a prison in 1877 with much of it broken down and sold for building materials. What wasn't recycled had to survive two significant bush fires in the late 19th century. The Catholic Church tried unsuccessfully using parts of it as a seminary and what remained was then used as tourist accommodation, with many of the early guides being ex inmates. 

The Penitentiary

The Church

Old Hospital

Guard Tower

The Asylum

After exploring the site in the rain, I checked in to the only accommodation bordering the grounds and headed back for the ghost tour. No ghosts were sighted but our guide (Meadhe) was excellent and had us ready for numerous changes of underwear with her spooky stories. The scene could not have been better set, 4 kerosene lanterns were handed out amongst our group, Port Arthur was sparsely lit and this along with the rain and mist created an ambience that would be a film production designers dream. It made for a highly entertaining and dare I say sphincter tightening experience. 

Meadhe also had a more recent tale which tickled my fancy. She had married inside the the Church (pictured above). It no longer has a roof and no doubt serves as a stunning venue (day or night) for such an occasion. Her husband now gets to tell the story (and this is comedy gold) that "they still hand out life sentences at Port Arthur". How good is that?

To finish the night a number of our group retired to "Felons", a restaurant on site, and had an excellent meal (and yes there was some wine involved as well). A most pleasant way to end the day. 

Postscript: The Massacre

Port Arthur has again become infamous in more recent history as the site of Australia's worst mass murder. I paid my respects at the site where many of the 35 people lost their lives. There is a memorial and reflection garden on the site of the old Broad Arrow Cafe, scene of much of the carnage. You couldn't help but feel the pervasive evil that engulfed the place. There were no executions at Port Arthur in its time as a prison, capital punishment was carried out at Hobart (although there are upwards of 1,100 people buried on the Isle of Dead in the middle of the cove, so death was still all too common). Having just the day before stood on the hangman's scaffold that sent 32 people to their death over the course of 100 years and then stood at the scene where many of those 35 innocents lost their life in less than an hour on that fateful day in April 1996 really brought home the preciousness and fragility of life in an all too real a fashion. The perpetrator deserves whatever misery the Tasmanian prison system inflicts upon him.