Tasmania is full of beautiful scenery. Clear skies, blue water and lush green mountains. Above and below are snaps we took on our way to Port Arthur! Nature is lovely in Australia, and especially in Tassie!
So what’s so special about Port Arthur? I’m sure everybody around the world knows that Australia’s first settlers were British and Irish convicts. But if you didn’t know already, Port Arthur was actually Australia was first colonised. This is where all the convicts stayed and worked and it became Australia’s largest penal station.
Port Arthur is now Australia’s most significant heritage sites and have thus has become one of Australia’s top tourist attractions. As a large open-air museum, you can walk around the large land and feel history come to life. Most buildings are still in tact, but some have unfortunately been destroyed in two large bushfires in the 1990s.
Above is a photo of me standing at what would’ve been the convicts first view of Australia. Lucky, I say! Look at how pretty the mountains are in the background. But just in front of the mountains, are the various buildings such as church, penitentiary, guard tower, policeman’s residence, commandment’s office, etc.
Here’s my brother and I inside one of the buildings.. Hahahaha.
Once you purchase a ticket to enter the Port Arthur Historic Site, you receive a complimentary ticket to sit on the ferry which takes you around to see the other islands. This is the way to get to the POint Puer Boys’ Prison, where three thousand boys, some as young as nine years old stayed and worked.
Most people jump onto this ferry to visit the Isle of the Dead which is a separate island where thousands of burials were made. I was not game enough to visit there, but I sure loved standing in the sun feeling the cool breeze on my skin while riding the ferry!
This is me loving the sun and water!
Here’s a photo of my mum and dad. Cute!
Believe this is one of the guard towers. If you tried to leave the island, you’d be shot from this tower!
You can also walk through the prison (it’s very eerie!) and see what it’s like to live here. Here is a typical prison cell where they slept and worked.
While the buildings for the convicts were so horrible, this is how beautiful the Roman Catholic Chaplain’s house was. Isn’t it stunning!
This is my favourite room in the house, it’s so pink! Love!!!! <3
Here’s me and my brother in the court room where convicts were sentenced.
Doesn’t this bell look real? Well it isn’t! It’s paper!
This is one of the churches at Port Arthur, where you came to repent your sins. Too bad a lot of the building has been destroyed.
While you may have been treated poorly as a convict at Port Harbour, it was well kept. Check out how beautiful it must’ve been to live here!
In all, I recommend visiting the Port Arthur Hertiage site. It is located at the southern end of the Tasman Peninsula, 90 minutes’ drive south-east of Hobart. We spent a whole day here, there are so many things to see and do and we still didn’t get to see everything. There’s so much to experience and learn here, it was great. Make sure you put on your walking shoes though, this place is huge but well worth the whole day visit!
