Tasmania Trip Day 4 ~ Port Arthur Historic Site

Today, we're going to join a day tour to Port Arthur, one of Australia's most significant heritage area, it was the former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania. Sounds spooky huh? But its actually a very nice place, I'll tell you guys more about it later.

On our way there, we stop by at Pirates Bay to have a look at its beautiful scenery and of course, to snap some wonderful pictures for our photo album!! Haha~ Here's a pic of Pirates Bay.

When we reached Port Arthur, each of us were given a card to play "The Lottery of LIFE". Each card actually leads to the background of a convict previously brought to this prison. I got Heart No. 6, wanna know who is it? Then go to my photo album to have a look at his story...hehe =p

Port Arthur is indeed very big, we started off by joining a short guided tour where they briefly explain the establishment of the prison. Most of the convicts were actually shifted from England and between 1830 and 1853, there were a total of 12,500 convicts passed through Port Arthur. Can you imagine how many more were brought in until 1878 when they finally closed the prison?

I'll leave that to your own imagination. Hehe =p Lets move on to our first stop as we were given a few hours to explore the place on our own. We arrived at the Separate Prison where convicts were locked in separate cells, they were each given a number, hence, their names were no longer spoken. The guard will constantly checked on them through a peep hole on their cell door. The convicts will spent 1 hour outside their cells for exercise, and for the rest of 23 hours, they will stay in the cell in solitude and silence. And even when they were exercising, they need to be chained and wear a mask to prevent them from having any contact with anyone. Its like living in their own world, all by themselves...hopelessly...

Ok, enough of sad stories, its time for our favourite - photo taking around the whole of Port Arthur!! Haha~ Shirlin & me just ~love~ taking pictures...lol~ So we went to the Church, Museum, Hospital, The Guard Tower, etc. The whole place gave me a feeling as if I'm in the world of warcraft. Lol!! Really...the settings is really nice, with the remains of those historic buildings, the garden, the sea, basically the whole landscape gave me that feeling. And you know what, most of the buildings were built by the convicts, even every single brick was made individually. Pretty impressive huh~

At about 1.30 pm, its time for a ferry ride to the Isle of the Dead where they buried about 1100 people. The convicts were buried at the lower level of the island and they basically have no tombstone on their graves. The higher ground level was reserved for civil and military burials. There was Ghost Tours available at night but we didn't join as we need to head back to Hobart by evening. Honestly, I wouldn't dare to go for the ghost tour also...haha~

So thats basically all about the experience we had for this tour, it involved quite a lot of thinking while we visit the places in Port Arthur, imagine its previously full of convicts, how's life for them in the prison...well...follow your imagination...