I woke up in Port Arthur, and as per tradition for this trip, I packed up to check out of the room. Checkout time was drawing nigh. The procedure went just fine, but when I finally had everything ready to go out the door… I couldn’t find my shoes.
It’s not like I could have gotten into my room without my shoes. I did not recall using my shoes as part of an esoteric sacrifice ritual last night. And, as far as I know, my shoes did not have the ability to move without my help. Why hast thou forsaken me, shoes?
It took far too long for me to realize that I’d been wearing aquasocks yesterday since I was at the beach in the morning. My actual shoes had been in the car the entire time, hiding behind one of the seats.
That emergency past, I leapt into my morning adventure: Port Arthur, which I could see just down the hill from my motel room.
Port Arthur (the historic site and not the adjacent seaside town) is one of the many preserved penal colonies of Tasmania. It was built in 1830 and operated until 1877. If you know your history, you already know that Australia in general was England’s dumping grounds for criminal offenders; Port Arthur is where Australians did the same thing for their own criminal offenders. In other words, it was a matryoshka of penal relocations.
Port Arthur put its convicts to work harvesting timber and building ships with the plentiful cheap (free) labor. The facility built some 200 ships while in operation.
(Tangentially, Port Arthur is also darkly famous for the Port Arthur massacre of 1996, wherein a gunman entered the historic site and murdered 35 people and injured 23. It was the deadliest mass killing in modern Australia and was the tipping point for Australia’s major overhaul of its gun laws. The site has a somber memorial to the victims tucked among the prison buildings.)
It was a beautiful day, with bright sunshine and perfect temperature. Why not visit the site of a vicious prison and a vicious modern mass shooting?
After nabbing some chai and an exceptionally delicious white chocolate raspberry muffin in the visitor center, I was ready for exploration.
The Port Arthur historical site is one of the best-designed such sites I have ever seen. The visitor center is top-notch, with good restaurants, impeccable facilities, and a small-but-excellent museum on the lower level. Beyond the center are meticulously gardened grounds, various tours and speakers, carefully preserved buildings, and a short harbor cruise included in the general admission. The site huge, too; if I’d known better going in, I would have planned at least a day to spend exploring. (The general entry price grants admission for two days, which should give you an idea how much stuff is there.)
First, I must say a couple words about the museum. It’s literally only a couple rooms on the lower level of the entry building, but it’s top-notch for both visual design and visitor engagement. The bit that impressed me most was the room where you could pick a random playing card out of a slot. Each playing card, specially designed for the museum, represented a single prisoner or prison employee. You then could match that card around the museum to the story and artifacts from that particular person.
Now finished enjoying the museum, I walked into the bright sunlight to explore the grounds. First order of business: the 20-minute harbor cruise, which is a good introduction to the story and layout of Port Arthur. It’s also a very nice little ride out into a beautiful ocean bay.
Once back on land, I realized I only had about two hours left to explore the grounds. (I had firm plans for the afternoon.) I chose a circuit around the edges of the grounds, which took me past several of the highlight areas, including the prison cells and the church. As I walked through, I wished more and more that I had more time to spend exploring. There is so much to see and learn in Port Arthur, and it is such a beautiful place that houses such dark stories. Aside from the picturesque remains of the buildings, there are garden paths, trees, flowers, and birds. Everything is nestled up to a forest of dense trees, facing calm ocean of deep blue.
As I was walking through a doorway inside the prison building, I noticed a chirping sound and saw a tiny bird fly into a crack in the wall. I looked closer and found a nest and a baby packed into a space only a couple inches wide.
For many years, the Port Arthur prison site was left to decay, because it was a cruel place with terrible tales. The locals felt that this place should crumble to dust, along with its painful past, so as to not glorify or profit from what happened here. However, curious tourists and historians kept showing up anyway. In 1916, an organization was established to manage the site, and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
While it may seem incongruous for such a horrible place to become so beautiful, there is also something fitting about honoring the dead with a beautiful place for contemplation and education and, well, making new little birdies.
Sadly, my watch told me that it was time to go, so gleefully spent a few minutes raiding the gift shop. And then, on my way out the door, a kindly man with an iPad asked if I had a few minutes to answer survey questions about my visit. I spared my time, and as a reward, I got a deck of the convict cards from the museum. Neat!
Finally, as I walked back out into the parking lot, I noticed with an amusement an entire row of cars that would be completely useless in many areas of Tasmania.
Onward to the afternoon adventure!
