Port Arthur, Tasmania

crafty1tutu (Ann)
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Port Arthur, Tasmania
Port Arthur, Tasmania

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. By 1840 over 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived here. It had become a major industrial settlement, producing ships and shoes, clothing and bells, furniture and worked stone, brooms and bricks. 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 repeat offenders.Transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) ended in 1853 and Port Arthur began to enter it's welfare phase. Increasingly it housed the wreckage of the convict system, men too physically or mentally disabled to look after themselves. Again Port Arthur became the administrative centre of a system of outstations than now housed invalids who worked at agriculture if they could, or who simply served out their time. The penal settlement finally closed in 1877. Many of the settlement's buildings were pulled down or gutted by fire. Others were sold to private settlers and gradually a small town named Carnarvon was established. Almost 100 years ago, the government began to acquire and manage town lots for their historic value. What you see today is only a fraction of what was once here.
On Sunday 28th April, 1996, the Port Arthur Historic Site was the site of a devastating violent crime when a single gunman killed 35 people and injured dozens more. Staff from the Historic Site were among the victims. The man responsible was captured the next day and will serve the rest of his life in gaol. A memorial garden has been established as a place of quiet beauty and calm contemplation in memory of the people who lost their lives on this day.

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Taken on: December 4, 2008
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Sets appears in:   • Tasmania, December 2008.   
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