Tag Archive for 'Australia'

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On Walkabout In: Strahan, Tasmania

Published on May 31, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Strahan, Tasmania.

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After driving across Tasmania’s Wilderness Highway and exploring Australia mining past in Queenstown; my wife and I then finally rolled into the small, but popular tourist city of Strahan on the island’s remote west coast:

Before Strahan became a tourist city with it’s brightly colored historic cottages, it was in fact known for being the port city for one of the worst penal colonies in the entire British empire:

The prison itself was located on Sarah Island out in Macquarie Harbor that Strahan was the port city for. Sarah Island was the Alcatraz of the Australian penal system due to the prison being on an island in the remotest reaches of Tasmania. Anyone escaping from this prison would literally have to walk back from the end of the world in order to reach civilization again. However, this didn’t stop convicts from trying to escape. The only one to successfully escape is also Australia’s most infamous cannibal Alexander Pearce who I profiled in this prior posting.

However, this cute little town actually didn’t get started because of the penal colony, but as a port for the mining and timber industries that found vast riches in the wilds of western Tasmania in the 19th century. Now a days the tourism industry is a leading economic driver in this city and for good reason because this remote area of Tasmania is stunningly beautiful:

There is even a small airstrip at Strahan that is used to take tourists on sightseeing flights around Western Australia.

Fishing is also another major economic activity in Strahan as is quite evident with the number of fishing boats that can be seen tied up at the harbor:

However, the tourists don’t come to this small city of 637 people to eat fish, instead they come to ride the tour boats around MacQuarie Harbor:

The Macquarie Harbor reaches deep into the interior of Western Tasmania and has long been the major transportation route to reach this remote area of the island:

The other reason tourist flock here is to ride the West Coast Wilderness Railway which the terminus can be seen across the harbor from Strahan at Regatta Point:

My wife and I drove around the bay and over to Regatta Point and here is the view looking back towards Strahan:

This railway was originally constructed back in 1897 to bring the minerals from the mines around Queenstown down to the port here at Regatta Point. This rail line was closed in 1963 when shipping minerals by truck became more economically feasible than shipping it by rail. Interestingly enough the carriages from this railway were shipped to Victoria and are used on the well done Puffing Billy Railway outside of Melbourne. This railway wasn’t reconstructed and reopened for tourism until December of 2002.

Here is an old diesel locomotive used to pull the train the day we visited, but there are a number of steam powered engines as well that were pulled out of museums and reconstructed to support this railway:

Here are the cars that passengers ride in on this rail journey:

After spending the day exploring both Queenstown and Strahan my wife and I looked forward to the next day where we planned to travel to the place we most wanted to see on our tour around Tasmania, which is the beautiful Cradle Mountain.

Next Posting: The Road to Cradle Mountain

On Walkabout In: Queenstown, Tasmania

Published on May 29, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Queenstown, Tasmania.

Prior Posting: Tasmania’s Wilderness Highway

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As my wife and I drove across Tasmania’s Wilderness Highway we reached its western reaches where the highway ascends up the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range:

Due to mining and forestry these mountains look very different for obvious reasons from other mountain ranges my wife and I saw in Tasmania:

Highway A10 ascends up the side of this steep mountain range and into the heart of the mining operations. The various mines that once operated on this range include include Barium, Copper, Gold, Pyrites, Silver, Zinc. Some gold mines still operate in the West Coast Range to this day:

Once the highway reached the crest of the range, my wife and I had a stunning view looking back towards the east and the twisting highway that we used to drive up into these mountains:

All around us we were surrounded by the remains of old mining operations on the slopes of Mt. Lyell and Mt. Owen. There is actually a few hardy souls that still live up here in these mountains in the small village of Gormanston:

From Gormanston it is a short but steep down hill drive to the historic mining town of Queenstown:

Queenstown is a small city with a population of 5,119, but this still makes it the largest city on Tasmania’s remote and sparsely populated West Coast. The city has a stunning backdrop with the West Coast Range towering over the many historical Australian buildings that compose the town:

However, all around the town is obvious evidence of the area’s mining activities, which only adds further historical charm to this city. Here is the old Empire Hotel in the heart of downtown Queenstown:

However, people don’t come to Queenstown now a days to look at old buildings, they come here to ride the West Coast Wilderness Railway:

This railway was originally constructed back in 1897 to bring the minerals from the mines around Queenstown down to the port at Strahan. Unfortunately we didn’t have time budgeted to ride this train, but would definitely like to do so on a return trip to Tasmania. Instead we drove from Queenstown down to the small port city of Strahan where the rail line ends.

Next Posting: Strahan, Tasmania

On Walkabout On: Tasmania’s Wilderness Highway

Published on May 23, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Franklin River, Lake St. Clair, Overland Track, Tasmania.

Next Posting: Into the Wilds of Southwest Tasmania

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After touring around the wilds of Southwest Tasmania, my wife and I headed for our next destination which was the remote west coast of Tasmania. To reach the east coast we had to first backtrack down road B61 from Strathgordon and than take highway A10 east to the small port city of Strahan:

As we turned on A10 we began to see a lot more small towns and buildings compared to the depopulated and isolated southwest of Tasmania. Just about every little town we passed through had an old church made of usually sturdy stonework that has allowed the structure to survive many decades in the harsh Tasmanian climate:

There was also a number of farmhouses along the highway as well that were making a living mostly grazing sheep on clear cut areas of former Tasmanian bushland:

Forestry is a very big industry in Tasmania and along the highway we saw plenty of evidence that clear cutting still continues here as a logging practice. Fortunately the clear cut lands are being replanted by the logging companies now a days compared to the past where it just became grazing land:

Eventually the highway reached the Derwent River, which we had previously saw back near Hobart:

However, the river looks nothing like it does further down stream because of the massive deforestation that has opened up vast tracts of grazing land for the state’s various sheep farms. There was this one lane bridge across the river that made crossing an interesting experience:

Vehicles wishing to cross the bridge had to park on their side and await their turn to cross. I just thought it was interesting that in a modern country like Australia that here was a major highway in Tasmania that motorists were depended on a way bridge to cross this river. You would think at least a two lane bridge would have been built by now. Anyway once across the Derwent River the highway begins to enter into the bush again.

Sporadically at different points along the highway there was various hydroelectric plants:

This system of hydro electric stations is managed by Hydro Tasmania that also manages the Gordon Dam we saw the day before. The hydroelectric plant you see above creates electricity by having water use the force of gravity to travel down these pipes and and turn generators. There are 29 of these hydro power stations in Tasmania to go along with 50 dams. These dams and hydro power stations provide the majority of Tasmania’s energy needs.

A lake we stopped at that wasn’t formed by a dam was the beautiful Lake St. Clair:

Lake St. Clair is part of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park. The lake was carved out by ancient glaciers during the last Ice Age and is 200 meters deep. The depth of this lake makes it not only the deepest lake in Australia, but also the deepest lake in the world:

The lake is even more famous in Australia as being the end point of the most popular multi-day hike in the country, The Overland Track that runs across Tasmania’s central highlands. Instead of walking across the central highlands, my wife and I were driving across it from east to west and yes it was quite spectacular:

One of the most scenic areas along the highway was this view of Mt. King William I Saddle, which I have often seen in various TV car commercials because of the stunning backdrop it makes:

There are plenty of other mountains along the highway to stop and see as well along this section of the highlands composed of broad, boggy plains and rugged mountain peaks:

Eventually Highway A10 enters into the rugged western mountains where the road is completely cloaked by a dense forest:

Occasionally the view would open up to expose a dramatic peak rising above the dense forest:

This section of the road is known as The Wilderness Highway:

My wife and I stopped along the way to hike to a lookout, which offered a view of a prominent Tasmanian mountain known as the Frenchman’s Cap. Like much of the highway, this trail was surrounded by the trees of a dense temperate rain forest:

The trail climbed up a hill and at various the foliage open up enough to provide expansive views of the surrounding bushland:

Eventually the trail reached the top of the hill where a beautiful view of the 1,446 meter (4,744 ft) Frenchman’s Cap could be seen:

Here is a closer look at the Frenchman’s Cap, which clearly shows the white quartzite rock that composes this striking peak:

A trail takes hikers to the summit of the Frenchman’s Cap, but it take approximately 3-3 days to complete. This is another one of the Tasmanian hikes I want to do some day. Looking down below the hill I hiked up is the Franklin River, which in the 1980′s was the source of many protests by environmentalists to stop the damming of the river:

Here is a closer look at the Franklin River:

The protests against the damming became known as the NO DAMS! campaign, which ultimately stopped the building of the Franklin River Dam, which preserved this incredible wilderness. I am not against dams in general, but not every river in Tasmania needs a dam and it is good to see at least one of its major rivers is dam free.

From the hill my wife and I hiked back down it and to the river:

Once again we were surrounded by the lush Tasmanian rain forests that has to provide some of the freshest air on earth because the air was just great to breathe in:

The foliage was extremely dense and gave us a good idea of what convicts like Alexander Pearce that escaped from a prison colony on the west coast would have experienced trying to get back to civilization. The water along the Franklin River was incredibly fresh with the slight tannish tent to it that is common for water in Tasmania, which I was told was because of the gum tree roots dying it that color:

We finally took a walk up to a beautiful waterfall that was supposedly important to local Aboriginal tribes:

This portion of Tasmania is extremely scenic, remote, and wild. It is great that this huge wilderness is protected and still in a natural condition that the first European explorers on Tasmania would have saw it as. Our next destination would take us out of this remote wilderness and into Tasmania’s colonial past, which included mining and convicts.

Next Posting: Queenstown, Tasmania

On Walkabout In: The Wilds of Southwest Tasmania

Published on May 21, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Arthur Range, Australia, Lake Pedder, Mt. Anne, Tasmania.

Next Posting: Strathgordon, Tasmania

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From Strathgordon we back down road B61 and made a turn heading south down dirt road C607 to see a more remote area of Tasmania’s Southwest National Park:

Along the way down C607, which is also known as Scotts Peak Road, my wife and I stopped to hike the trail called the Creepy Crawly Walk. The trail is a short walk on an improved boardwalk through a temperate Tasmanian rain forest:

I highly recommend stopping to take the walk through the forest because it provides a good sample of what the temperate rain forests in this remote area of Tasmania are like:

As we continued heading south down Scotts Peak Road our view was dominated by the spectacular peak of the 1,423 meter (4,669 ft) Mt. Anne:

We found ourselves continuously stopping to appreciate this stunningly beautiful peak:

Here is a closer look at the summit of the peak:

Another impressive mountain along the road is Mt. Eliza:

Eventually the road reached its southern reaches where it bordered a broad open plain:

The road then began to travel west and towards a small dam on Lake Pedder’s southern end:

From the eastern shore of Lake Pedder the peaks of Mt. Eliza dominate the eastern horizon:

The even more remote Arthur Range to the south of the lake:

There were plenty of more random mountain sticking out of the lake as well:

As we reached the southern end of the lake we had an even better view of the Arthur Range looking across a wind swept and boggy wilderness plain:

These mountains were incredibly beautiful to look at and are one of the most challenging multi-day hikes in all of Australia to access due to its remoteness, ruggedness, and fickle weather conditions:

I would absolutely love to hike across the Arthur Range at some point in the future once I have the time set aside to undertake such a hike. The Port Davey Track that traverses these mountains takes 8-14 days to complete. Anyway sticking to paved and dirt roads was going to have to do for this trip and the end of this road was at yet another dam on the south side of Lake Pedder:

Out in the distance of the above photograph I was just able to make out the steep summit of Mt. Anne on the left and Mt. Eliza n the right. Here was the view looking northwest where the little village of Strathgordon is located on the far side of the lake:

Here is a picture of Solitude Mountain to the north, which became an isolated island within Lake Pedder when the dam was created:

Here is the view looking east with Mt. Anne once again visible in the distance on the far right:

Here is a better view of Mt. Anne and Mt. Eliza in the eastern distance:

Finally here is our last look at the Arthur Range as its spreads from west to east across the southern horizon:

Southwest Tasmania is just an incredible place to visit and my wife and I both wish we had more time to camp out longer and do more exploring of the area. However, it was time for us to continue on our journey around Tasmania and next up for us was to drive to the Tasmanian West Coast across the Wilderness Highway.

Next Posting: Tasmania’s Wilderness Highway

On Walkabout At: Strathgordon, Tasmania

Published on May 19, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Strathgordon, Tasmania.

Next Posting: Southwest Australia & Lake Pedder

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The only settlement in the remote Tasmanian Southwest National Park is the tiny village of Strathgordon that lies between Lake Pedder to the south and Lake Gordon to the north:

Strathgordon really isn’t much of a village because it is very small with very few amenities and is basically just a place for dam workers that mostly rotate through this remote area to live:

The village was constructed in the late 1960′s as a place to at first house the dam construction workers and then reverted into its current role of a place for dam maintenance workers to stay. Hydro.com has an excellent history of Strathgordon for those looking for more information about this unique village.

For me the most interesting thing in Strathgordon was this display of Tasmania’s famous Huon Pine tree:

Here is a brief history about the huon pine from Discover Tasmania:

Huon pine is one of the slowest-growing and longest-living plants in the world. It can grow to an age of 3,000 years or more. Only the bristle-cone pine of North America lives longer.Huon pine is found in western Tasmania (not far from Strahan), on the Central Plateau and in the Huon Valley.

Huon pine is a relic of Gondwana – the first pollen records date back 135 million years.

International headlines were made with the discovery of a stand of Huon pines on the west coast still growing from a base root more than 10,000 years old. All the trees are male and are genetically identical. No individual tree in the stand is 10,000 years old; rather, the stand itself has been in existence for that long.

In the early 1820s, convicts on Sarah Island, in Tasmania’s remote west, constructed ships from Huon pine. The wood contains oil that retards the growth of fungi, hence its early popularity in ship-building. Later, piners on the Franklin and Gordon rivers felled Huons and floated them downstream.

Today, the tree is wholly protected and cannot be felled. However, wood on the forest floor, or buried in river beds, remains usable after hundreds of years and is still prized by modern woodworkers. [Discover Tasmania]

Some long time readers may remember I have written about the infamous prison colony on Sarah Island before. A closer look at this ancient pine’s tree rings shows just how much world history this tree has seen:

You can click the picture for a larger close up to read the markers. The final thing my wife and I did in Strathgordon was taking a walk along the shore of Lake Pedder and just enjoy the rugged mountain scenery that surrounded this small outpost of civilization in the wild southwest of Tasmania:

After finishing our walk along the land we then decided to take highway B61 to its very end to see the Gordon Dam. Along the way on B61 there was a lookout that provided a stunning view of Lake Pedder:

We continued down B61 until we came upon the Gordon Dam Power Station:

As beautiful as Lake Pedder is, Lake Gordon is the exact opposite because from here you can easily see what a toll the “green power” produced by the hydroelectric dam has had on the Tasmanian environment:

Trust me the environmental damage looks even worse in person. At the very end of the road is the Gordon Dam that is responsible for the altered environment in this area of Southwest Tasmania:

What surprised me was that this dam wasn’t very big compared to other dams I have seen, in particular Hoover Dam, which easily dwarfs this dam:

Running from the dam was a small creek of water that composes the Gordon River:

At one time this river must have been a heck of a rafting trip through these incredibly steep mountains that surrounded the dam:

I walked down to the dam where visitors can walk across it:

If visiting the dam I highly recommend walking across it because it really does give you a better appreciation of how big this dam is. Here is the view from the dam looking back towards Lake Gordon:

The reason the surrounding shores of Lake Gordon appear so damaged is because the water level in this lake is allowed to fluctuate to power the dam while Lake Pedder’s water level must remain at a constant level. Down the road from Gordon Dam is the McPartlan Pass Canal, which links Lake Gordon to Lake Pedder and allows one lake to keep a constant water level at the expense of the other:

The Gordon Dam is the end of B61 and so after our visit we turned around and headed back down the highway and looked for a further adventure into the wilds of Southwest Tasmania:

Next Posting: Into the Wilds of Southwest Tasmania

On Walkabout To: Tasmania’s Southwest & Lake Pedder

Published on May 17, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Lake Pedder, Southwest National Park, Tasmania, World Heritage Area.

Next Posting: To the Summit of Mt. Wellington

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After spending a day checking out Hobart and driving to the top of Mt. Wellington my wife and I continued our Tasmanian journey by driving up the Derwent River and to Tasmania’s incredible Southwest National Park, which is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Map from here.

The Derwent River that we drove along was first explored by Europeans when British Commodore John Hayes explored the river in 1793. He gave the river the name Derwent which was Celtic for “valley thick with oaks”. The highway we were traveling on followed the Derwent River and was lined with small towns and bridges connecting communities on each side of the river:

However, once we made the turn off the main highway on to the road leading to Tasmania’s remote Southwest the terrain around the river quickly became more rugged with fewer and smaller communities along it:

Eventually the road left the Derwent River all together and we were surrounded by the incredibly dramatic scenery of Tasmania’s interior such as this picture of beautiful Mt. Fields:

As we traveled past Mt. Fields National Park on the two lane road B61, we lost all signs of civilization. The only thing to remind us that we were in modern Australia was this highway we were traveling on. All around us was the remote wilderness of the Southwest National Park:

We found ourselves stopping our vehicle constantly to take pictures of the incredible scenery we were surrounded by such as these rocky spires that loomed over us:

Eventually we reached the 651 meter summit of the highway before it drops down towards the only village in the park, Strathgordon:

Despite this region’s infamous level of rain fall every year; when my wife and I visited the area we were lucky enough to enjoy incredibly beautiful weather with the bluest skies imaginable. From the 651 meter summit of the road my wife and I found ourselves on a wind swept mountain saddle with a beautiful view of a mountain lying to the west of us:

While driving along this remote two-lane road I couldn’t help, but appreciate what a wild place this was. This view looking out across the dense Tasmanian forests would be identical to what the early British explorers would have saw over 200 years ago when they landed on Tasmania:

Eventually the highway reached Mt. Mueller, which was back dropped by the incredible blue skies that Tasmania has to offer:

As we continued down the road we continued to be dazzled by the stunning vistas that surrounded us:

The highway eventually reached the shores of Lake Pedder:

This lake was named after Sir John Pedder, the first Chief Justice of Tasmania and I guess since it was only fitting that since the lake was named after a legal figure that it would be the subject of much legal controversy later on.

Lake Pedder used to be a much smaller natural lake that was a premier Tasmanian National Park. However, in 1967 the Tasmanian government revoked the lake’s National Park status and designated it to be the site of a hydroelectric dam. Despite protests and legal actions by environmental groups the damming project was completed in 1972 and greatly increased the size of the lake. Lake Pedder is so large now that it is considered Australia’s largest fresh water lake. It in fact holds 27 times the amount of water that is found in Sydney Harbor.

Despite its controversial damming the lake is incredibly beautiful with its rugged mountain backdrop:

This photo below is a view of Lake Pedder looking down from Mt. Eliza that really shows the dramatic and stunning scenery that is the Southwest National Park:

After pulling over and admiring this controversial, but undoubtedly scenic lake we them continued our drive through this isolated frontier towards the village of Strathgordon.

Next Posting: Strathgordon, Tasmania

On Walkabout On: Mt. Wellington, Tasmania

Published on May 15, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Hobart, Mt. Wellington, Tasmania.

Prior Posting: Hobart, Tasmania

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One of the most visited areas in all of Tasmania is the summit of Mt. Wellington that overlooks the island’s capitol city of Hobart:

The mountain was named Table Mountain by early explorers of Tasmania, but in 1832 it was named Mt. Wellington in honor of the Duke of Wellington who helped to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo. The large, rounded summit of the mountain is usually snow capped most the year except during the summer months. The mountain is thickly forested and criss-crossed by many hiking trailers. There is an even a paved road that takes visitors to the summit of the mountain that is capped by a large tower:

The road is 22 kilometers long and was built in the 1930′s as a make work scheme for the unemployed. As the road nears the summit the igneous rock that forms the top of the mountain surrounds the road:

For a mountain so large I found it amazing how relatively flat the top of the mountain was:

These igneous rocks on the summit are most dramatic on the mountain’s southern side:

Here is a closer look at these unusual rock formations:

Besides the rocks that populate the summit of the mountain, there was also plenty of small plants was well:

Here is a closer look at these plants that have to survive some extremely harsh weather to be able to survive on the top of this mountain:

Even more surprising than the plants that some how survive up on the summit is the fact that we saw a lot of lizards living up there as well:

At the top of the 4,170 foot (1,271 meters) summit of Mt. Wellington is the concrete and steel Broadcast Australia Tower that provides radio and TV signals across the greater Hobart area:

The views from the top of this mountain are tremendous to say the least; with the most impressive view being of Tasmania’s capitol, Hobart:

It is this same view of a much smaller Hobart that Charles Darwin saw in February 1836 when he climbed Mt Wellington during a visit on the HMAS Beagle. Darwin would have also saw the Tasman peninsula out in the distance which at the time wasn’t quite as notorious for being the site of the prison colony of Port Arthur:

Here is the view further up the Derwent River that runs through Hobart and out into the ocean:

Here is the view even further up river:

Up river is where my wife and I planned on going as our next destination was to drive out to the World Heritage Area in Tasmania’s remote southwest. This scenery would prove to be even more dramatic than anything we had seen yet on our journey around Tasmania.

Next Posting: Up the Derwent River to Southwest Tasmania

On Walkabout In: Hobart, Tasmania

Published on May 13, 2010 in Tasmania. 0 Comments Tags: Australia, Hobart, Tasmania.

Prior Posting: Port Arthur, Tasmania Part 2

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After visiting the old penal colony of Port Arthur, my wife and I continued our tour around Tasmania by traveling to the island’s capitol city of Hobart. The city was founded in 1803 as a penal colony, which makes it Australia’s second oldest city behind only Sydney. Hobart is home to roughly 220,000 people who find themselves in a beautiful city located along where the Derwent River empties into a scenic bay and is back dropped by the 1,271 meter Mt. Wellington:

Like just about every city in Australia, Hobart has its very own ANZAC memorial, which was located right near downtown in a beautiful park that overlooks the harbor:

The most famous event that Hobart is known for around the world is the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, which occurs every December. This yacht race is a huge event in Australia and it is fun to watch the updates on the news on who is winning. When my wife and I traveled to Hobart we actually timed our visit to coincide with boats from the race arriving in the harbor:

This boat race is approximately 1,170 kilometers long and crosses the unpredictable waters of the Bass Strait between mainland Australian and Tasmania:

The most dangerous year for this boat race was in 1998 when five boats were sunk and six sailors died in the stormy waters of Bass Strait that year. This boat race, known as the Bluewater Classic in Australia, may be Hobart’s most famous event, but the most infamous moment in the history of the city may very well be when the Tasman Bridge that links Hobart with its eastern suburbs, collapsed killing 12 people in 1975:

The bridge now long repaired collapsed that year when a bulk ore barge hit one of the supports of the bridge. Not only did this accident lead to 12 deaths, but it also caused the eastern suburbs of Hobart that compose 30% of the city’s population, to be cut off from the rest of the city. The Tasman Bridge was the only traffic artery between the two sides of the city and the next bridge crossing to Hobart was a 90 minute drive. Needless to say the bridge collapse caused great social upheaval as people who lived on the east side could no go to the west side to work until ferry operations opened to move people across the bay. It took more than a year to get the bridge repaired, but since this tragedy more bridges have been constructed across the Derwent River to connect the two sides of the city.

This picture below from the slopes of Mt. Wellington shows how the city is cut in half by the Derwent River and the bay:

If you look closely, on the left side of the picture you can make out the Tasman Bridge crossing the Derwent River. Hobart I think is the most scenic looking location of any of Australia’s large cities, however my wife and I felt the best place to appreciate the city’s wonderful natural setting was from the top of Mt. Wellington.

Next Posting: The Summit of Mt. Wellington

On Walkabout At: Port Arthur, Tasmania – Part 2

Published on May 11, 2010 in Tasmania. 3 Comments Tags: Australia, Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Next Posting: Port Arthur, Tasmania – Part 1

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Besides the penitentiary building the next most prominent structure that catches the eye at the old penal colony of Port Arthur is this impressive looking watchtower:

I walked up and around to the watchtower in order to go inside and get a glimpse of Mason Cove from the guards perspective:

Here is the view the guards at the penal colony would have had as they watched the British ships anchor here and unload their cargo of newly arriving prisoners:

With the most striking buildings of Port Arthur belonging to the convicts and the guards it is sometimes easy to forget that Port Arthur was more than prison but also a community filled with normal every day homes for the various families that lived at Port Arthur:

Considering the squalor the prisoners and even the guards lived in, the homes where the senior officers and prison administrators lived in were very large and beautifully decorated:

Some of the homes had full kitchens staffed with full time cooks and maids:

Here some more pictures of the smaller houses that would have been the homes of civilians and other officers that worked at Port Arthur:

Of course at Port Arthur there was a church as well:

Not only did the convicts build this church, but they were also forced attend services here as well:

Here is what the inside of this long abandoned cathedral looks like:

Out towards the front of the cathedral my wife and I strolled this pleasant garden:

The last thing my wife and I did at Port Arthur was take a boat tour around the harbor. The boat tour was very interesting and continued to add to the educational experience of visiting this penal colony. For example we learned that the prisoners used to work on making boats and used these boats to go on whale hunts:

It was in one of these boats that some convicts made an escape from Port Arthur and made their way all the way up the Australian east coast before being recaptured. Most convicts were eventually released from Port Arthur, but some were left to spend an eternity at Port Arthur when they died and were buried at the Isle of the Dead in the center of the bay:

Between 1833 to 1877 about thousand convicts and civilians were buried on the island.

Here is a close up photo of the graves on the island:

You can actually pay more to take a tour that allows you to walk on the island and view the graves:

We didn’t have time for that and just took the tour around the bay. Here is the view looking south towards the entrance of the bay and the ocean:

And here is the view looking back towards Port Arthur as the boat circles around the Isle of the Dead and heads back to port:

As the boat came back towards Port Arthur the penitentiary came insight around the bend of trees:

I couldn’t help, but think was the convicts traveling here a hundred and fifty years ago thought as they saw the penitentiary come into view? Here is a historic photograph from the early 1860′s that does show what the convicts saw when they arrived at Port Arthur:

Port Arthur looks vastly different today from its heyday 150 years ago:

After finishing the boat tour my wife and I headed back to the car park thus finishing our tour of Port Arthur. We really did not know much about Port Arthur or the convict history of Australia’s past, but this visit really made us knowledgeable about this interesting part of Australian history.

Next Posting: Hobart, Tasmania

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Note: More pictures of Port Arthur can found at Port Arthur’s official Flickr page here.

Also for American readers that may not know Port Arthur was the site of the greatest modern massacre in Australian history back in 1996 when 35 people were killed and 21 more wounded in a shooting rampage that forever changed gun control laws in Australia. I didn’t want to dwell on it in this posting, but if you can read more about if you are interested at this Wikipedia page.

On Walkabout At: Port Arthur, Tasmania – Part 1

Published on May 9, 2010 in Tasmania. 3 Comments Tags: Australia, Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Prior Posting: Wineglass Bay, Tasmania

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After visiting Freycinet National Park and Wine Glass Bay we headed further south along Tasmania’s east cost towards the historic Port Arthur, which is an important site for the Australian conscious for events that happened there in both the past and present. Port Arthur is located on the Tasman Peninsula, where we found a really nice caravan park to spend the night at that was located along a beautiful cove:

The next morning we packed up our camp site and headed down the road towards the nearby Port Arthur. Most Americans have probably never heard of Port Arthur, but for Australians this place is of great historical significance. The colony first got its start as a timber station in 1930, but from 1833 to the 1850′s Port Arthur served as the penal colony for the toughest criminals sent to Australia. This depiction of a bunk on a transport ship going to Australia shows how little room prisoners shipped to Australia had on the way there:

Something I didn’t realize before visiting Port Arthur was that the prisoners transported to Australia from Britain were not sent to jails, but rather worked at logging camps, farms, and other businesses in Australia as indentured servants. Upon completion of their sentence as indentured servants they were set free and given the option to be given land to start their own farm or business with the skills they learned. The prisoners housed at Port Arthur however were convicts that re-offended while serving their sentence as an indentured servant in Australia. This caused Port Arthur to be known as the prison with the worst of the worst of the British penal system. However, if there was ever a place to house such prisoners this was place because not only was it located on the far off island of Tasmania, but it was also located on a remote peninsula with only one way to reach the rest of the island which was accessed by a narrow, heavily guarded 30 meter isthmus.

Here is a view of the isthmus named Eaglehawk Neck looking towards the north and the mainland of Tasmania:

On this small isthmus British kept a military garrison that prevented anyone from escaping to the mainland. There is actually a few buildings that remain from when this isthmus was a military garrison that visitors can check out:

One of the most humorous escape stories is of a convict that found a dead kangaroo and used its hide as disguise to try and hop his way past the guards. However, the guards who were always on the lookout for a bite to eat began to fire at the kangaroo which forced the convict to take off his kangaroo disguise and give himself up. Anyway here is a view of the west side of Eaglehawk Neck:

Here is a view of the east side looking north:

Here is a view of the east side looking south:

On the east side that is exposed to the ocean’s waves, we saw a number of surfers trying their luck on the waves:

I doubt the soldiers in the Eaglehawk Neck ever tried surfing, but it looked like the surfers were having a good time. Anyway back to Port Arthur; for being in such a remote area the settlement at Port Arthur was quite large compared to the few buildings that remain today. This model at the visitor center gives a good depiction of just how large this prison colony once was:

The visitor center was actually quite good and gave a lot of very relevant history in regards to not only the prison but the British penal colony system. So I spent a good amount of time there reading all the displays. After finishing up at the visitor center, my wife and I walked over to the main penitentiary of the prison colony:

This building actually used to be a flour mill constructed by convict labor before being renovated into a penitentiary to house more prisoners as the colony grew:

Walking around the inside of the penitentiary was actually a bit spooky even during the day time:

As I walked by the prisoners’ cells I was amazed by how small the rooms were:

How would you like to locked up in that room for an extended period of time?:

Near the penitentiary there was another building that was used to house the worst prisoners of Port Arthur in solitary confinement:

The prisoners may not have had much room in their cells, but look at this room at the building near the penitentiary where the guards lived:

The guards didn’t have much room to themselves either and some of the displays said that the behavior of the guards was not much better than the prisoners because of the effect the isolation and alcoholism had on the soldiers stationed at Port Arthur.

Something else of interest about the penitentiary is that local actors put on little skits for visitors that depicts the daily life of the convicts at the prison:

As the prisoner population at Port Arthur aged eventually an asylum was needed to house the increasingly mentally infirm convicts that began to populate Port Arthur: