Fri, 30th Jan, 2015 Premaydena Recreation Ground (Port Arthur Convict Prison and sightseeing)

Raining lightly so slow start waiting for it to ease up. Put tea on in the Ecopot then headed back to Port Arthur Convict Prison again.

Watched the video at the Info Centre.  I found the other end of the story with the cessation of the Penal Colony in 1877, Port Arthur was divided into town lots and sold. The new town adopted the name Carnarvon in 1884 in an attempt to lose its shameful convict associations. 

Another section was about the Convict Coal Mines which was interesting as we have been there already so it made sense when we looked at the model on the wall.

The tramway going out to Plunkett Point, though Steve pointed out it should have had two tracks, one going down and one coming back up. Stickler for correctness!!

The mine site we looked at showing the shafts going out from the main hole.

Information about how they used the raw materials to create the colony establishments. Port Arthur was built by convicts. Even the plans for the early settlement are believed to be drawn up by a prisoner. Since many of the original buildings were made of wood, there was a great demand for skilled carpenters. These men also helped train many of the younger convicts. During the 1840s many of the wooden buildings at Port Arthur were replaced by more permanent brick and stone structures.

Still have to check out the “Dog Line” at Eaglehawk Neck.

Wandered through reading about all the convicts and their crimes, jobs etc. Certainly paid to be skilled though that didn’t stop them trying to escape and then getting whipped or put back on the chain gangs.

Each of the different areas that the convicts could work in is shown in different little open rooms. (it was a bit dark so some photos are blurry.)

Overseer – I was amazed how many of the convicts were actually guarding other convicts. It seems the convicts did everything with just a few people to teach them and soldiers to guard them.

Shoemaking was popular but unfortunately there was too many of them when they were released so a lot became jobless again.

Blacksmiths made everything.

The Cookhouse.

Interesting note – The fat that rose to the surface as the meat was boiled was called the “Slush”. The cooks would skim this off and use it later for bartering. This was the cook’s “Slush Fund”.

Charles Hogan certainly was busy having to shave every man. Interesting job choice when he left – leech gatherer!!

Carpenter’s Shed and working with wood.

Of course skilled boatmen were sort after too.

The hospital information was scary.

It was a very big business really with all this unpaid labour.

The Gallows - The ultimate form of punishment was execution. Although several convicts were sentenced to death for crimes committed within the confines of the settlement, no one was ever executed at Port Arthur. Instead, prisoners were removed to Hobart for trial and executed in the Campbell Street gaol.

The Lash – while punishments between 12 and 36 lashes were the norm, serious offences such as absconding or assaulting an overseer, were punished with up to 100 strokes.

Chain Gangs – Some gangs at Port Arthur were forced to work in leg irons. Each leg iron was riveted together and could only be removed by a blacksmith. Prisoners were sentenced to work in irons for periods of up to 12 months. Occasionally convicts were ordered to serve their entire sentence at Port Arthur in irons. It was more common, however, for prisoners to be to the chain gang only after they had been found guilty of a serious breach of the settlement regulations.

John Blake was a man who refused to take orders. While a convict he received 782 strokes of the lash. He also spent 267 days in solitary confinement and laboured for nearly four years in chains. Most of these punishments were inflicted while he was at Port Arthur. The irony is, that if he had learned to keep his mouth shut, he would probably have been employed as an overseer. Many of the overseers at Port Arthur were ex-soldiers like John Blake.

Charles Wellings was employed as one of two flagellators at Port Arthur. The other was a sailor called Thomas McCann. Wellings and McCann would be called upon to administer the punishment. They would take it in turns to wield the cat o’nine tails at the prisoner’s back. The two men do not appear to have got on well, as Wellings was charged with ‘assaulting and striking’ McCann. For this offence he was sent to work in the Chain Gang.

Info about the Surgeon Superintendant.

Quarry Gangs.

They even had Strikes.

Marked Men.

Timber Gangs.

Went with a group on the Introductory Walking Tour. Our guide has three ancestors who were either a convict or worked here as constables. She was very interesting and it was good to do after we had seen it all as it made sense then. We brought little umbrellas rather than raincoats which wasn’t a good idea as the wind nearly turned mine inside out when the rain started again.

One story she told when talking about the hospital was of a man who was trying to escape. He was ordered to stop or be shot upon. He kept running so they shot him and he was hit in the arm and the musket shot fractured his arm. As there was no aesthetic or antiseptic here he was held down while the surgeon dislocated his arm then cut the arm off!!!! The Commandant was there watching it and wrote about it in his journal. Amazingly he survived and was back working in 5 days with his one arm and was used as an example to other convicts thinking about escaping. He later left and went on to live a good life in Hobart with wife and children – that was amazing.

We are lucky to see the inside of the Penitentiary as she said it only opened for this tourist season and it wasn’t finished as there are no info signs etc. She also mentioned the orchard at Trentham and said that all the fruit and vegies are there to try. This might be where Erica got her apple from or she said maybe the apple tree at the Commandant’s house (which is about to be pulled out as it has died).

Wandered into “Trentham”. Strange to think of this area as being a town after the penal colony closed down.

 Lovely gardens have been restored and the house has been used by the Archaeology section to research what is below the floor boards etc.

Inside more information about the house and area as it grew and changed after the prison closed.

Tourism was becoming increasingly important in Tasmania. The township, no longer called Carnarvon, became Port Arthur again in 1927. In 1947 the Government purchased Trentham.

Went outside and Steve checked out the strawberries but none were ripe.

There were even a couple of chooks in the pen.

Huge vegie patch with all kinds of things

 Not sure what this is.

 But this is definite beetroot – huge one.

In the orchard there were plums, apples and pears.

Blackberries, but not ready yet, with nasty prickles.

Snow Apples.

Plums.

Lots of fruit falling off but most has been stung and not ready to eat yet. Green apples.

Pears.

These pears look a bit better.

These apples are very squashed together.

A little joey looks lost.

We wandered over to the Welfare Area to look at the Pauper’s Depot. Lots of work in the retaining walls.

Unfortunately a lot of the convict grew old or injured over the years and needed more care so they had to make an area to house and care for them.

 Quite a big area.

Big wall separating the pauper complex from the hospital.

Wandered around the hospital area trying to work out what was what. Convicts were commonly treated for numerous conditions including respiratory or rheumatic ailments contracted from working outdoors and sleeping in cold cells and wet clothing.

Fancy work on the archway, the timber is charred from the fires.

Up on the top floor where they have put two beds on the beams.

The info board was down below the hospital on the grass area where the original wooden hospital was.

All this area used to be under houses etc but it was sold off after the prison closed.

Water Supply.

 Looking across to the spot where the water wheel was in the Mill before it was changed to the Penitentiary.

Steve wandered over to check out this little building. I saw on the map it was the laundry for the hospital.

This cottage housed one of Port Arthur’s most famous political prisoners – Irish Protestant Parliamentarian, William Smith O’Brien who was transported for life. He was sent to Port Arthur after an attempted escape from Maria Island.

He got the best views in the place.

Inside was more information about him and other political prisoners sent to Australia.

Lovely timberwork.

Originally it was a stables then the prisoner cottage, officer’s quarters and then private residence and hostel.

A beautiful harp from Wales.

We found the water supply trail. It tells the story of an ambitious project that aimed to make the convict settlement self-sufficient in the production of flour. A 600 metre, self-guided trail reveals the surviving artifacts from this convict-built hydro-engineering project.

You can still see the dugout channel that the water flowed down from the weir further up.

Settlement Creek flows down through the settlement.

More info about how the land was used up here.

This walk isn’t used much by the looks of it – the boards are old and dirty too. All about the convict built roads and how they moved things around the colony. We just take it for granted that there are roads and machinery to do things with. This area really makes you think about how easy we have it.

Looking back over to Scorpion Rock Lookout where we were yesterday.

The trail took us back to around to the Commandant’s house.

Used red bricks to make guttering beside the pathways.

Found some mulberries on the tree – not ready yet. We would starve waiting for food to ripen around here.

This might be the old apple tree Erica got her apple from 25 years ago.

Think we covered everything so headed back out to the truck. This is the area of the jetty the ships would unload onto and the Commissariat Stores.

As we walked back to the Info Centre we noticed the weather forecast says it is 11 degrees. Today was supposed to have a min of 13 and high of 15 so go figure that out. 90 percent chance of showers (no kidding), winds south-easterly 25 to 40 km/hr.

As we headed out we turned up a street and found the brick kiln. I dashed out for a photo as the rain started down again.

We didn’t get to the Cascades Female Factory, though Cathy & Darcie walked the rivulet the convicts walked to get to it and did the tour. In my brochure it says “Built in 1828, this self-contained, purpose-built, institution was designed for reformation of the thousands of female convicts brought to Van Diemen’s Land. The inmates did laundry, picked oakum and provided needlework services. Approx 25000 female convicts were transported to Australia, 15 per cent of the convict population. Female factories were designed to house, employ, manage, control and reform female convicts and as a place where their infant children were accommodated. This ‘factory’ was separated and hidden from the main settlement of Hobart. The factory women were assigned as house labour to free settlers or punished by undertaking labour within the factory walls. However, many of them married and nurtured large families and thus became the mothers of a young country. Once a busy and crowded place, the Cascades Female Factory site today comprises three of the original five yards, the matron’s cottage and substantial ruins of perimeter walls. It is one of the most intact surviving female convict sites in Aust.

Headed round to find the Remarkable Cave. Went through Carnarvon Bay, peering across to Isle of the Dead as the rain squall goes over.

Crossed over the end of the peninsula that leads out to Point Puer then down to Safety Cove Beach. Great view going down the hill as we look over the sea to rugged escarpments in the distance.

Found the road to the Remarkable Cave and then saw Dog Bark Road. Someone had told me about camping there so went down to check it out. Someone is collecting old tractors.

 Most were just dying in the yard but he had a new shed with a heap of old John Deere tractors that he must being fixing up.

We stopped in a nice spot at the end of the road to have lunch. Would be ok to camp here.

Just a short walk down to the beach which was calm and lovely.

We had fun watching this Pacific Gull surf the waves.

Stopped at very windy carpark for the Cave and Lookout. Great view of Cape Raoul.

Then to the other side to Mt Brown (on the left in the distance).

15 minute walk to Remarkable Cave – they didn’t say stairs.

 Shame we can’t get down to get the photo of the two openings but I got the one off the info board.

 It certainly does look like Tasmania.

Obviously the stairs went all the way down years ago.

Pretty berries and flowers.

Out onto the boardwalk to Maingon Bay Lookout.

 Great view from here to don’t think we need to do the 5 hour hike to Cape Raoul.

Zoomed in – amazing dolerite pillars.

Birds and plants.

Hot stuff.

Caves.

Mt Brown and blowhole. Decided we would walk to the blow hole as it only says 30 mins. Down the road at the turnoff it says 1 hour and 30 mins, hope the first one is correct.

Some more pretty flowers.

Following a narrow path through the low growth.

Found a fence line – needed to stop the sheep falling off the edge of the cliffs I suppose.

On we went.

 Looking back to the carpark.

And further on we go.

A better specimen of acacia.

Looking back we could see one of the caves into the Remarkable Cave.

Over one sand dune we got blasted with sand as we went down the other side.

Further around and I can see the two cave entrances. The one on the left is the Tassie one.

Great views of the Cape and coastline and more caves.

Steve disappearing in the distance as I take photos.

Mt Brown is getting closer but we have found a sign about the Blow Hole so it should be near.

Found the Blowhole but it is a long way back from the edge and a long way down to the water. We could hear the roar of the water rushing in. I took a video of the sound.

Walked around the other side to peer down to see if we could see anything that side. No.

Looking down to the ocean. A long way down.

Looking across to Cape Raoul again.

Looking back at the two cave entrances.

Down the dunes and up again.

View back over to Safety Cove Beach to escarpment opposite.

Back to the truck for a cuppa, hiding from the wind. The road to Palmer Lookout is closed.

Turned off at the road to Port Puer. Looking back over to Port Arthur Historical Site.

The road passes a golf course then we arrive at locked gates and a sign about the boys’ prison.

On the road again and we turned off at Whites Beach. In the mouth of Wedge Bay are more salmon ponds.

Lots of houses in Whites Beach, varying from fancy homes to simple cottages, shacks and covered vans. Lots for sale though. Some seem to have a few vans so maybe they share the block. This guy is just getting started, a slab and a bbq.

White’s Beach goes along way round the bay.

Followed the road around to the other side (Apex Point) – looking back at all the ‘beach’ houses.

Two cute little islands called Brother and Sister.

A couple of boat shacks by the water. Steve liked the one with the big TV antenna. The other one is for sale. A lot more rock this side.

Wedge Island.

Through Nubeena, which is a fishing village looking over Parsons Bay and is the largest township on the Tasman Peninsula. The houses are tucked away as we drove through it didn’t look big at all. Whites Beach has a lot more houses though a lot looked like holiday homes.

Up the road we turned off to Roaring Beach. There were heaps of hidden rural blocks, most with “Land for Wildlife” and “Save the Animals” signs to we know who bought them!!

Stopped in the car park and headed over the sand dunes to the crashing ocean.

 Felt like we were the only ones who have walked here.

Then we found a note – I didn’t leave it!!!

Lots of rocks and this sandstone outcrop.

 It was definitely a Roaring Beach with Wedge Island off shore. The wind was freezing too.

Wandered around the beach, no shells, just rocks.

Looking out to Storm Bay.

 Up and down the dunes again.

Who wants to use the toilet – have to climb another sand dune so no thanks.

Someone has been cleaning up the beach.

Another backpacker in a station wagon has pulled up for the night. The cricket club has mowed and cleaned up all the rubbish ready for the cricket match on the weekend. Quiet night catching up on my blog and Steve reading his gold magazines hoping for inspiration!!