Cells - Penitentiary, Port Arthur

Cells - Penitentiary, Port Arthur

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Cells – Penitentiary, Port Arthur

Port Arthur penal station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp, producing sawn logs for government projects. After 1833 it became a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. It also managed a number of outstations that produced raw materials like timber and food.

By 1840 over 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived here. It had become a major industrial settlement. When the probation system was introduced in 1841, many convicts were sent to outstations around the peninsula to work in timber-getting and agriculture. Port Arthur became a punishment station for serious offenders.

The main prison, called Port Arthur Penitentiary, was ready in 1844. Located right on the waterfront, this 75m long four-storey building was at the time the largest building in Australia.

The Penitentiary had 136 cells on the bottom two floors and 480 cells on the upper two levels. The cells were about the size of a lion’s cage (2.2m x 1.3m), because the Commandant thought of the prisoners as un-tamable beasts.

Transportation to Van Diemen’s land ended in 1853 and Port Arthur began to enter its welfare phase. The penal settlement finally closed in 1877 after about 12000 sentences had been served here. Many of the settlement’s buildings were pulled down or gutted by fire.

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Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia.

Canon PowerShot A650 IS

Shutter Speed: 1/60sec
Aperture: F3.5
ISO: 80

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