Port Arthur is 100 km to the east of Hobart city, out on the end of a peninsular which is almost an island, connected only by a narrow strip of land at Eaglehawk Neck. The remoteness of Port Arthur served it well as a convict settlement (about 1830 to 1870) as the location made escape all but impossible. One prisoner tried to escape by wrapping himself in a kangaroo hide as a disguise and hopping away, but when guards saw him they thought he would make a good meal and tried to shoot him. He gave himself up.
We hired a car and drove to Port Arthur on a sunny but windy day. We learnt that much of the Tasmanian countryside here looks like the rest of Australia, with a predominance of eucalypt trees. I think we had expected wetter, more rain-forest conditions.
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| The "Tesselated Pavement" reserve near Eaglehawk Neck. |
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| The rock is naturally splitting into fairly neat rows of "tiles". |
On the way we stopped near Eaglehawk Neck to look at the "tesselated pavement" (above) and the blowhole, Tasman's Arch, and the Devil's Kitchen. Those last three are related caves and arches formed where the sea has eroded deep slots into the cliffs.
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| The high cliffs near the blow hole. |
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| Tasman Arch (see man at top right for the scale). |
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| Looking south down the coast towards Port Arthur. |
The coast around Hobart is deeply indented with many inlets and islands, resulting in hundreds of kilometers of coastline. The road is never too far from the ocean.
Port Arthur itself now operates as a tourist attraction, with a large new visitor's centre nearing completion, and ticket office extracting money from your wallet as you enter. Apparently it has been a popular destination ever since the prison closed back in 1877. It is now a very pleasant estate with mature trees and extensive lawns and gardens. The lunatic asylum is now a cafe, and there is a modern catamaran running cruises from the jetty out to nearby islands connected to the prison.
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| In the grounds of the Port Arthur historic site. |
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| Our cruise stopped off on the Island of the Dead - the prison cemetery. |
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| The headstones on the island are almost exclusively for prison staff and their families. |
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| Leaving the (little) Island of the Dead. |
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| The ruins of the penitentiary. |
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| Our guide giving as a shady break. |
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| The roofless church. |
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| No services today. |
We found Port Arthur more interesting than we anticipated, and run as an efficient tourism operation rather than the abandoned site we expected. The 200 km drive there and back took us through past countryside and coastlines, so it was a satisfying day out.
However I can't recommend the fish and chips from the "Dunalley Fish Market", unfortunately!
