Convict Padlock

Convict Padlock

Blossom’s_Photo_Gallery

Convict Padlock

This Padlock was made by a convict. It is now on display at the Museum, which was once the Separate Prison.

Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia. ==============================================
Featured in the Top 10 of Alphabet_Soup Challenge The_Best_of_P ==============================================
Below is a brief history from the Wikipedia_Website

Port Arthur is located on the Tasman Peninsula and is the best preserved convict penal colony in Australia and the most visited place in Tasmania. More than 20,000 people a year wander through the old sandstone remains. Isolated by a narrow strip of land called Eaglehawk neck and a magnificently rugged coastline, it made an ideal location for a penal colony.

Port Arthur was home to 12,000 convicts, both men and boys between 1830 and 1877. Tales of infamy and cruel inhumanity abound with prisoners living under threat of the lash and an experimental isolation system which often drove them to madness. Although the discipline was strict, well behaved prisoners were rewarded with easier jobs many being taught trades, reading, writing and arithmetic classes were held after supper. Escape was rare and many stayed till the end of their life, then buried in mass graves on the Isle of the Dead. Today’s Port Arthur is quiet and peaceful with English oaks and green lawns rolling to the water’s edge. The tranquil gardens at Port Arthur are the latest project to be completed in the ongoing restoration programme of the historic site.

The 80-cell Separate Prison, where prisoners were kept hooded and in silent isolation, began in 1848, it symbolized what was seen as a new, gentler approach to imprisonment, where psychological punishment replaced floggings. In reality, Port Arthur was just as brutal as other penal settlements and many of the convicts suffered mental illness as a result of isolation.

In 1864 an asylum was built to house more than 100 mentally ill patients. It was the last major building, built as late as 1867, only 10 years before the penal colony was closed.

After the settlement was closed, the asylum was converted into the town hall.

Today, it is used as a museum and cafe.

Canon PowerShot A650 IS

Shutter Speed: 1/50sec
Aperture: F3.5
ISO: 320

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