Port Arthur, Tasmania

**Port Arthur** is a small town on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. It is about 80 km south east of the state capital, Hobart. It was settled as a penal colony (a very large prison for convicts). Port Arthur is now one of Australia's most important historic areas. In 2010 it was included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as one of the Australian Convict Sites. It is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. In 1996 the worst mass murder in Australian history took place here.

At the 2006 census, Port Arthur and the local area had a population of 499.

## History
### Australia's largest penal colony
Port Arthur was named after Van Diemen's Land lieutenant governor George Arthur. It started as a place to cut down timber from the forests in 1830. It is best known for being a penal colony. From 1833, until 1853, criminals from United Kingdom and Ireland were sent to Port Arthur as convicts. The prisoners were kept busy ship with jobs including building the prison, shoemaking, smithing, timber and brick making. In the 1840s there were more than 1100 prisoners. This was later turned into a cell block. After 1853 convicts from other prisons in Australia were sent to Port Arthur if they did more crimes, or would not behave properly.

In 1864 they started building the Asylum to hold the prisoners who had become insane. During the 1860s and 1870s the prisoners left at the prison were either too old, too sick, or insane to keep working. The prison closed in 1877. The Separate system was a change in the way that prisoners were treated. Instead of physical punishment the system used psychological (mind) punishment. It was thought that physical punishment, such as whippings, only made prisoners worse. It did not turn bad people into good people. In the Separate prison they used the "Silent System". Prisoners wore a hood over their heads. They were not allowed to talk or make any noise. The guards wore special shoes and walked on mats so they wouldn't make any noise.

Escape from Port Arthur was said to be impossible, like Alcatraz Island in the United States. Some prisoners did try to escape. One prisoner, George "Billy" Hunt, covered himself with a kangaroo skin and tried to get across the Neck. The hungry guards on duty tried to shoot him to make an extra meal. When he saw them pointing their guns, Hunt gave himself up. He was whipped 150 times. Bushranger Martin Cash successfully escaped along with two others.

### The Boys' Prison
The British Empire's first boys' prison was built on Point Puer, 3 km across Opossum Bay from Port Arthur. Puer is the Latin word for boy. It was for young boys, some as young as 9, like James Lynch, arrested for stealing toys. One prisoner was James Gavagan. When he was 11 he stole some umbrellas. He was sent to Tasmania for 7 years. He arrived at Point Puer in 1835. When he turned 17, he was sent to the main prison at Port Arthur. He was released in March 1842. The railway was built in 1836. The line ran from the beach at Taranna, Tasmania for 7 kms to Port Arthur. It carried both people and supplies. It meant that ships from Hobart could unload in the calm water and not have to travel right around Cape Raoul to Port Arthur through rough seas. The carriage was pushed along the tracks by 4 convicts. Very little sign of the railway has survived. The State Library of Victoria has a drawing of the convict railway. http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/0/8/doc/a08750.shtml

### Convicts to Tourists
When the penal colony closed in 1877 the area was renamed "Carnavon". During the 1880s the was sold and a small town was started. Many buildings were pulled down and the bricks sent to make new buildings in Hobart. Fires burned the area in 1895 and 1897 and ruined many of the old prison buildings. Some buildings were changed for the new town to make a post office and town hall.

Tourism started as soon as the prison closed. This brought money into the new town. Some of the old convicts gave guided tours of the prison. In 1927 tourism had grown so much the area's name was changed back to Port Arthur. He was captured by the police. This is now called the Port Arthur massacre. This led to a national ban on semi-automatic shotguns and rifles. It also made a link between the Port Arthur and Dunblane, a Scottish town which also had a shooting that year.

## References 
## Further reading
* Barrington R (n.d.) *Convicts and Bushrangers*, View Productions, Sydney
* Kneale, Matthew, (2000) *English passengers* London: Hamish Hamilton. 
* Smith R (1987) ''The Birth of a Nation: Australia's Historic Heritage — from Discovery to Nationhood'', Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, 

## Other websites 
* Official Port Arthur website
* The Interactive Tour of Tasmania website
* Port Arthur Archaeology Blog