Port Arthur

Friday we spent at Port Arthur which was the penal settlement that received almost 45,000 convicts between 1840 and 1877. Really interesting place – it is now such a peaceful park-like setting it’s hard to imagine that this was one of the harshest, most brutal, places on earth. A place where all hope was lost for the men, women and children who were shipped to Tasmania from the British Isles. After the penal colony was closed in 1877 the residence of Port Arthur tried to obliterate the remains of the institutions – they were such a black mark and nightmare memory for so many people. But a remarkable number of buildings have been restored and rebuilt – certainly enough to give you a feeling of what it was like – in the same way Heritage Park gives you a sense of public life in pioneer Canada. But it is all so sanitized. You can only imagine the horrors that the convicts faced both of the voyage from Great Britain to the slave-like conditions they experienced once landed.

The youngest convict transported was nine. One in four convicts transported were from Ireland. By the end of the transportation era, more people were in goal for poverty than actual law-breaking. “Great” Britain indeed.

BTW it was so cold in Port Arthur Friday, I believe Calgary was about the same temperature...