I left Hobart on Sunday and headed towards the Tasman Peninsula. The World Heritage Historic Sight of Port Arthur is here. It is a beautiful drive from Hobart with lots of twists and turns. I made my way around Pirate's Bay where there are the Pavement stones, a blowhole, the Tasman Arch and the Devel's Kitchen. Pirate's Bay is almost a tiny version of the Great Ocean Road. The wave action and sandstone/dolormite cliffs has created amazing geological formations along the coast. Eaglehawks Neck is also found at the far end of Pirate's Bay. At it's narrowest it is 90m across. It is because of this that Port Arthur was built on the Tasman Peninsula. Port Arthur was built in the 1840s to hold re-offending convicts. These were the worst of the worst of the convicts. They would be brought by ship from Hobart or Sydney. The only way off the Peninsula was to either swim (long distances to anywhere i.e. 8 hours to Hobart) or bushwalk through the wilderness to get across Eaglehawks Neck which was guarded by 8 dogs (4 on the Neck and 4 out in the water on either side). The bushwalking was not successful for many reasons, the number one reason being that the Tasman wilderness is unforgiving. Just in the last couple of years, a recreational bushwalker came across a skeleton dressed in convict clothing. The remains of an escapee who never made it off the peninsula.
Port Arthur is an amazing place, especially for a history buff like me. The ruins are amazing, especially the church, and the history is horrifying. Both the convicts and the free people living there had a rough life. The convicts were sent into the forests to quarry or forest, while the free folk were mostly forced to stay indoors, away from the convicts. If convicts were especially bad, they were sent to the seperate prison where there was enforced isolation where they were not allowed to talk to anyone, not even the jailers. The only time they were allowed out of their cell was for an hour of 'exercise' a day and mass on Sunday. Even at mass they were seperated by tall walls and could only see the pulpit in front of them. The only way they knew other prisoners were there was to listen for their singing around them. The convicts were also subjected to depersonalization. They were no longer called by their names. Instead, they were identified by their cell number. They also wore hoods at all times, as did the guards. Not surprisingly, many of these men went insane as these sentences could last from 4 months to 18 months. A very creepy place, but I'll get to that in a minute.
I got to spend my day at Port Arthur with a lovely couple from Sydney. We had actually met the night before on the Ghost Tour of Hobart and coincidently ended up in the same walking tour group in the morning at Port Arthur. They allowed me to tag along with them as we went through the site. This is the best part of travelling.
Once I'd finished at Port Arthur I made my way down to the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary down the road. There are many sanctuaries throughout Tassie because of a wierd cancer that has spread throughout the Devil population. They only get it through fighting, but Tassie's like to fight so it is decimating the population. The sanctuaries are trying to protect many of the Devil's and hopefully someday repopulate the island with healthy devils. I watched a bird show that taught me about many of the common bird species in Australian, including a one-winged Peregrine Falcon. That was pretty cool. I also got to see baby quolls (small marsupials), baby Devils and pet a few kangaroos and wallabies.
Amazingly, my day was not done here. That night I signed myself up for yet another ghost tour, this time of Port Arthur. The Port Arthur ghost tours are conducted by candlelight and it is almost pitch dark on the sight. There are no street lamps and only a few of the ruins are lit up, but in a creepy way. I got to be a lantern holder (yay for being the only Canadian on the tour). Our guide was amazing. He even gave me some Canadian connections to the sight. Franklin, the guy who disappeared searching for the Northwest Passage, was actually an overseer at Port Arthur for a little while. Who knew? There is even a cottage on the sight called Canadian Cottage. This is because it was a packaged home from Canada (probably from Eaton's or something). There were also a couple convicts from Canada, one a soldier who deserted because he no longer wanted to serve in the wilderness of Canada. Anyways, being the lantern bearer was very scary. Mostly because I was the lantern beared at the front of the group which meant that I often got to go in first. No ghostly encounters for me though. We even went into the most haunted house in Australia and nothing. I'm not sure if I am disappointed or relieved. At one spot, the other front lantern bearer and myself had to stand with our backs to the door. That wasn't creepy at all.
Our final stop in the tour was the Seperate Prison. Though I was very frightened during most of the tour, this one gave me the willies. There wasn't even a half decent ghost story for the place. It was more the warning our guide gave us as we went in. He told us (the two lead lantern bearers) to go stand at the stairs into C Wing, then told everyone else to stand on the stairs that led to the chapel the administration area. He also told us to stay away from 2 doors. In one, if we saw a convict appear we were to tell him and he wouldn't even tell us what was at the other doorway. He was very serious about us staying away from the doors, he even yelled at a couple who got too close. After he had finished talking about it, he then told us how to make a quick escape, complete with the warning not to look behind us and to not stop and take pictures. By the way, us two lead lantern bearers got to walk down C wing all by ourselves again to show the way to the exit. That was the end of the tour. My next stop was to the Comfort Inn right above the sight. Literally about 300m from the most haunted house. Let's just say I left the light on all night and the TV as well.
more to come....
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