Port Arthur Historic Site

Port Arthur is a historic site on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, Australia, about 97 kilometres southeast of Hobart. It was a convict settlement, a place where British prisoners were sent far from home. It began in 1830 as a timber station and from 1833 to 1877 held convicts who had broken the law again after arriving in Australia.

Today its sandstone ruins, gardens and harbour are one of Australia's most visited heritage sites, with over 250,000 visitors a year. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Australian Convict Sites, a group of 11 places that show how convict labour helped build the colonies.

Life as a convict

The settlement used hard labour and strict rules to punish and reform prisoners. The Penitentiary was a four-storey building that began life as a flour mill and granary and was later changed into a prison. Another prison, the Separate Prison, was built in the 1850s based on the idea of the panopticon, and kept prisoners in silence and isolation, which harmed many of them.

The Isle of the Dead and Point Puer

The Isle of the Dead is a small island in the harbour where about 1,646 people were buried, but only 180 graves, those of staff and soldiers, are marked. Point Puer was a separate prison for boys, some only nine years old, who worked and learned trades.

Today

The prison closed in 1877. After the buildings fell into ruin, visitors began to come, and in 1979 money was found to protect the site. A management authority has cared for it since 1987.

On the globe

The model shows the roofless four-storey sandstone Penitentiary and the settlement facing Mason Cove.