SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

                                             A Scary Room

 Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, operated 47-years (1830-1877) as a prison and never was a town. On the way to Port Arthur we rode through rolling hills and farmland passing by Barilla Bay, famous for its oysters. Stopping at the Tasmania Devil Park I saw and learned all about the small, black, rather ugly Tasmanian Devil.

     Port Arthur, located on the isolated Tasman Peninsula, was just as much a natural prison as Alcatraz was in this country. Surrounded by hungry sharks, the peninsula is connected to the mainland only by  100-yard wide Eagleneck Neck. Guarded by chained angry dogs it made escape nearly impossible. All deliveries to the prison were made by boat as the road overland from Hobart, the capitol, was not built until 1893.

     Of the 73,000 English convicts sent to Australia, 12,500 of the worst offenders were sent to Port Arthur. Originally established as a timber settlement there were no permanent buildings for three years. Although the conditions at Port Arthur were brutal, the prison was progressive. All convicts were gainfully employed in one of 47 trades.  Young boys were required to attend school at a time before education was mandatory.

     Whipping punishment in front of the entire prison complement was replaced with solitary confinement.  The small windowless concrete walled room was  totally dark. The approximate  

6 X 6 –foot room left little space even for exercise. Claustrophobic me took my turn entering the room. It wasn’t ten seconds after the door was shut that I was yelling, “Open the door NOW and let me out.”  It wouldn’t take long to go mad, and so many prisoners actually did that a psychiatric building had to be built.

    Today the whole area is peaceful.  The visit was very interesting, but the solitary confinement was dark and scary indeed.  What would those walls say if they could talk?

HOBART,TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA

                         Capitol of the only  Island State

      Located at the foot of 4160’ Mt. Wellington, Hobart is a blend of heritage, beautiful scenery, and a relaxed island lifestyle, but with all the amenities of a thriving city. Graceful old trees cover the manicured lawns of the many small heritage parks and gardens in the city. Forty percent of Tasmania’s population live in the capitol. The lush lowland farms and villages with their Georgian cottages look very English.  Tasmania Botanical Gardens, originally a land grant for a farm garden, became the botanical gardens in 1918.

  In 1804 Colonel David Collins settled Hobart with 262 people. He named the city for Lord Hobart. The same distance south of the equator as Boston is north, Hobart is Australia’s second oldest city. (after Sydney) Once a whaling base, the city of 139,000 has one of the finest deep-water harbors in the world, and is now a busy port. The Derwent River runs through the city. St. David’s Park was first a burial yard for Hobart in 1804, and turned into a park in 1926.

 Hobart is the center of the state’s government. 1105’ Mt. Nelson has watched over ship movements in and out of the Derwent River since 1811.

 Governor Macquarie established Battery Point after a visit in the early 1800s. The oldest building at Battery Point is from the 1818 signal station. Twelve relay stations made full communication available between Hobart and Port Arthur. Battery Point was named for the guns that once protected the area. There is a lot of history at the Point and much to see.

Some of Hobart’s  old buildings  include St. David’s Church, 1868, a Regency Egyptian style synagogue 1843 (the oldest in the country), Parliament House, built by convicts in 1840 as a Customs House, and turned into its present function in 1856, and the Cascade Brewery, the country’s oldest. The oldest theater in Australia is located in Hobart. The city also houses a maritime museum and a folk museum.

The Royal Hobart Hospital is the largest teaching hospital in the state. The University of Tasmania is also in Hobart---Errol Flynn’s father taught zoology at the University.

There is much reclaimed land at the harbor, and it took convicts 60 years to reclaim it all. Apples grow well in Tasmania and many of the 250 varieties are exported to Japan.

The main street in the city is Liverpool. The expressway out of town was built in 1954.

      Warm sandstone buildings line the uncrowded waterfront in an area called Salamanca. The series of old warehouses were built in 1930 to store apples, corn, and wheat for export. At one time a jam  factory occupied one of the buildings.    Now the area is full of trendy restaurants, sidewalk cafes, stores, and art studios.

      The city is very walkable and we took advantage of the warm sunny day to walk by St. David’s Park where a sweet little gazebo stands in the center. Later we learned that there were no native trees in the park.

      A specialty of Tasmania is Lemmington---a lemon sponge cake covered with chocolate dough and coconut. I found the one we ate a bit dry. Unlike the Pavlova dessert that the Aussies have such rivalry about, I believe the Lemmington is strictly Tasmanian.

      Hobart is a delightful city and we had a great time there in Australia’s only island state..

TASMANIA

                                           An Island State

      From Texas to the land down under is a long trip. Australia is also about the size of the United States so when you make the trip think in terms of at least three weeks. I made two trips, five years apart, seeing different sections of the country each time with the North Island in New Zealand on one trip and the South Island on the other trip. Needless to say I have lots and lots of stories about those trips, many of which I’ve already posted.

     Our accommodations were different on each trip. The first time we stayed in 5-star hotels with never a whim lacking. But my favorite accommodations were the second trip when we stayed in small boutique/ B & B hotels. Although no complaints with the large hotels I just prefer the small friendly facilities.

     In Tasmania our boutique hotel had a widow’s walk which I’d never been on, although I’ve seen many on old Victorian homes. Our hotel, a stately mansion, was located on a hill in the heart of historic Battery Point. A short flight of stairs led up to the widow’s walk which was much larger than I thought it might be. The room was totally enclosed with glass windows and glass ceiling. There was a wonderful view of the entire city of Hobart and the harbor.  With the sun shining in everywhere the room was comfortably warm.

     Our hotel was an easy walk from Salamanca, the restored old waterfront. A series of aged warm sandstone warehouses line the uncrowded waterfront. The buildings, built in 1930, once stored apples, corn, and wheat for export. At one time there was a jam factory in one of the building.  Now the area houses trendy restaurants, sidewalk cafes, stores, and art studios.

      At the Salamanca Café we had lemmington for dessert---a lemon sponge cake covered with chocolate dough and coconut.  I thought it was a little dry, but ok. It certainly did not fall into the category to die for.

       There is much reclaimed land at Hobart’s harbor, and it took convicts 60 years to reclaim it all.

      Apples grow well in Tasmania, and many of the 250 varieties are exported to Japan.

       One end of the island is covered with heavily grown jungle/rain forest which is basically unexplored and  unpenetrable and certainly no tourist area.

      Hobart has a lot of history and a gorgeous botanical garden where walked many of the paths before sitting to watch colorful birds fly around. I particularly enjoyed the spectacular flora. It is a very walkable city. Hobart, capital of Tasmania, is Australia’s second oldest city. Tasmania is the country’s only island state.

AN UNUSUAL ANIMAL

Tasmanian Devil

Tasmania Devil Park is a delightful little park. Having only heard about the devil, I was anxious to see one.  There were three or four of them in an enclosure. It was fun to watch them run around and play.

A park guide told us, “The Tasmanian Devil is a wolverine-like animal extinct on the Australian mainland and found only in Tasmania. It is a carnivorous marsupial. The size of a small dog, black in color, it has a spine tingling screech. Its powerful jaws can crack bones so when feeding it can devour the entire animal. It is fearful rather than aggressive. A picture showing its teeth is usually a yawn rather than an aggressive act. Aggression is shown with loud noises.”

      Tasmanian Devils are synchronous breeders, mating in March, the babies are born in April/May. A female can have 6-8 pups, but she only has four nipples so only four pups can survive. The gestation period is only four weeks, but the pups suckle in the pouch for another six months. They generally live about five years. Inhabiting virtually all of Tasmania, they survive any and all climates, sleeping by day, and eating at night.

        Devils raiding poultry yards were a nuisance to early settlers . At one time there was a bounty offered for them  driving them to  remote areas. When protected in 1941, they had been hunted almost to extinction. The population has survived, and today is a healthy one.

The guide continued, “Although they have a reputation of killing sheep, they are rather inept killers, preying on small animals when they do kill. They prefer to scavenge, and are very good at it.  When under stress they produce a rather unpleasant odor, but when calm are not smelly but   rather tidy animals.”

    After watching the devils for awhile we strolled off and came upon a park guide who was holding an animal neither of us had ever seen.

It turned out to be Lilly, a baby wombat, who was just as cute as can be. About 18 months old she was still small enough to be held in a caretaker’s arms.

We were told, “Wombats grow to about the size of a pig, and they can do a lot of damage to a car if one is unlucky enough to hit one on the road. They burrow. See how their front and back claws are different. They dig with their front claws then throw the dirt back with the hind claws. A marsupial, they suckle in the pouch for six months, then stick around with mom for another twelve months. Related to the koala, wombats are vegetarians, and are nocturnal. In the wild they live 5-8 years, about 20 years in captivity. They have a hard steel-like back plate. When threatened, they head into their burrow, placing the hard plate at the entrance, which protects them, as nothing can penetrate it.”

Interesting animals indeed, and probably a couple we may never see again.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

SCARY THOUGHT

            Tasmania, Australia’s island state, is picturesque with a good deal of the island inaccessible because of rich forest. On the way to Port Arthur we rode over rolling hills and farmland. We passed Barilla Bay, famous for its oysters, and stopped to visit the Tasmanian Devil Park to learn all about that unique animal.

Port Arthur was not a town at all but a prison from the time of its settlement in 1830, until its closing in 1877. It operated as a prison for 47 years.

Original punishment was whipping with a cat ‘o nine tails—nine leather straps, each knotted nine times was dipped in salt water before striking the offender. Punishment was carried out in front of all other prisoners. This punishment was abolished in 1849 in favor of solitary confinement.

Taken to a separate building the prisoner was placed in a small totally dark room (no windows) for 72 hours where guards would then play mind games. Fed only once in 24 hours, sometimes the guards would bring a meal just before midnight, then an hour or so later bring the next day’s meal. Prisoners totally lost track of time and became disoriented. In 1867 an asylum was built, and when the prison closed in 1877 the asylum housed 100 prisoners. Charles Dickens visited Port Arthur for research material before writing Oliver Twist.

   As we walked the grounds, we found the isolation room. Of course  I had to check it out. I entered the room leaving Jan outside to open the door when I yelled. When I was inside she turned off the light.  I don’t think I made it even a full minute. If you’ve ever been in a cave when the lights were turned out you know what total darkness is like and as a prisoner there would be no end.

I stepped out of the room saying, “Oh that is awful. I’d go insane real fast! I'd rather take the beating.”

            Before leaving Port Arthur we took a short boat ride out to the Isle of the Dead. All 1769 prisoners who died are buried on the low south side of the island, often in common graves, and. 180 free settlers are buried on the top northern side of the island. Headstones were not permitted until 1852, and prison stonemasons often cut head stones for the settler graves.

            Following  closure of the prison, buildings were sold or gutted by fire. In 1884 in an effort to remove the ‘convict stain’ the name was changed to Carnarvon. The name Port Arthur was resumed in 1927. The National Parks and Wildlife Service acquired the site in 1970. The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, established in 1987, now manages and maintains the site.

PORT ARTHUR, TASMANIA

                                             NEVER A PORT

Port Arthur, located on the isolated Tasman peninsular,  was just as much a natural prison as Alcatraz was in the US. The peninsular was surrounded by hungry sharks, and was connected to the mainland only by the 100-yard wide Eaglehawk Neck peninsula that was guarded by chained angry dogs. The possibility of escape was nearly impossible. In the history of the prison there were only two successful escapes.     

Our driver told us, “Convicts in a chain gang built a causeway in 1872-74. All deliveries to the prison were by boat, as the overland road from Hobart to Port Arthur was not built until 1893.  Of the 73,000 English convicts sent to Australia, 12,500, mostly second offenders or violent criminals, found themselves in Port Arthur. These worst offenders also included women and juveniles. The young boys were sent to Puer Island, (abandoned in 1849) and were required to attend school. This was a progressive concept as school was not yet required for the general youth population. Males and females were separated.

   In 1830 Colonel George Arthur with 68 men established Port Arthur as a timber station. The first three years 1½ million cubic feet of lumber was cut and sent to England. There were no permanent buildings for three years. Over the next eleven years Port Arthur saw 6002 convicts in the settlement. Although the prison generally held 600-700 prisoners at any time, at its peak in 1840 the prison held 2000 prisoners plus a complement of soldiers and supporting personnel numbering 1200.

Although the conditions at Port Arthur were brutal, the prison also was progressive. All convicts were gainfully employed in one of  47 trades. The trades all evolved with a commercial bias. Included in the complex were a sawmill, granary and flour mill, railroad, shipbuilding workshop, tannery, coppery, gardeners and cobbler shop. The brickyard produced 50,000 bricks a month. The blacksmith made nails and fasteners. Between 1834-49, the shipyard produced over 200 long and whale boats. The largest boat was the size of the Mayflower. When the shipyard was closed down, a lime kiln was built to produce lime for mortar. Shells were collected and crushed as a limestone source. The bakery produced 1000 loaves of bread a day.

There still was a lovely 1800 church on the grounds.  There had been a hospital on the grounds and the guard towers were close to the officer housing. Today the ivy-covered ruins and restored buildings are a lovely historic site with a feeling of  peacefulness--a bit of a contradiction from its history. I couldn’t help but wonder what we would hear if the walls could talk!

It was a delightful van ride to the isolated site and a fascinating look back into Australia’s early history.