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Tasmania, Port Arthur former settlement - - Pictures
Port Arthur, former penal settlement in southeastern Australia, in the state of Tasmania, on the remote Tasman Peninsula. Located southeast of Hobart, the state capital, Port Arthur was a huge penal colony from 1830 to the 1870s. It was restored in 1979 by the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service as a historical park and today is part of Australia's National Estate. Port Arthur is a popular tourist destination. Notable features include the model prison, and the guard towers and church, built by the inmates in 1836.
Australia was first settled by Europeans in the 1780s with convicted criminals from Great Britain. These criminals were sentenced to transportation, which means they were exiled to a designated place in the British colonies. Port Arthur was created for prisoners who had committed other crimes since arriving in Australia. Sir George Arthur, lieutenant-governor of the Tasmanian colony, then called Van Diemen's Land, selected the site because it would be nearly impossible for prisoners to escape from it. The seas around Port Arthur were full of sharks, and the only land access was across Eaglehawk Neck, a narrow and well-guarded strip connecting the peninsula with mainland Tasmania. The colony housed about 2000 prisoners at a time, and its penitentiary was one of Australia's largest buildings when it was completed in 1844.
