PORT ARTHUR, TASMANIA ..TROVE TUESDAY DEC 12TH, 2017 ...SERIES 2

PORT ARTHUR, TASMANIA .... SERIES 2

PORT ARTHUR

The above engraving represents a view of the penal establishment at Port Arthur, Tasmania, and as the question of the immediate or gradual abandonment of this depot for Tasmanian prisoners and old Imperial convicts, is again likely to be brought before Parliament, 

 our sketch will no doubt be all the more acceptable just now. At present there are nearly 300 prisoners at this settlement, but the government propose to reduce this number to 150 long sentenced men, by removing the others to the Hobart Town goals. It is further proposed to call in the guards at East Bay Neck and woody Island, and to build a rockade around a portion of the ground by prison labor so as to superintend the establishment with a smaller staff, and also permit the whole of Tasman’s Peninsula beyond a radius of four miles from the church (the spire of which can be seen in our engraving) to be thrown open for free settlement.

Weekly Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1872 - 1878), Saturday 4 October 1873, page 1 National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233105058 

Location of Port Arthur, Tasmania 

Courtesy of Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur,_Tasmania

 From what was once an accepted, if not admired, penal settlement, over years the attitudes changed. 

Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), Tuesday 25 September 1860, page 2 

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39002245 

PORT ARTHUR CONVICTS.

We have before us the Report of the

Select Committee appointed by the House

of Assembly to inquire into the system

under which tickets-of-leave are granted

tomen confined at Port Arthur. The com-

mittee sat seven times, and examined the 

Comptroller-General, the Police Magis-

trate of Hobart Town, the Inspector of

Police, and the Superintendent of the City

Police, Hobart Town.. The report states

that "during the period extending from

23rd September, 1859, to 30th June, 1860

the number of men discharged from Port

Arthur amounts to 161. The number of

men detained at Port Arthur in July, 1819,

was 573; in July, 1860, 5164. During

the last twelve months 225 have been dis-

charged with tickets of leave or pardons,

and about 216 sent down under judicial or

magisterial sentences, of whom 42 are the

same individuals. Out of 564 men now

detained at Port Arthur, only 24, or 4 per

cent. of the whole number, were originally

free." The commitee remark that '"every

succeeding return shows a gradual trans-

ference of the burden of malintaining these

criminals from the Imperial to the Colonial

Government, under the operation of that

most unrighteous regulation which pre-

scribes that all men convicted of crime,

after one year's enjoyment of a conditional

pardon, or expiration of their original

sentence of transportation, shall be re-

garded as colonial and not Imperial con-

victs. On lst July the relative numbers

18t58-Imperlal, 339 ; Colonial, 240.

1859-Imperlal,310 ; Colonial, 263.

1860--lmperial, 271 ; Colonial, 298."

The number of male convicts transferred

to Port Arthur from Norfolk Island on the

breaking up of the settlement there were

242; of whom, on lst September, 1860,

52 had become free by expiration of their

sentences; 32 had received conditional

pardons; 10 have been sent back to Syd-

noy ; 65 are holders of tickets of-leave in

Tasmania; 2 are lunatics; 30 are under

sentence at Port Arthur; 27 are absconders

illegally at large; 4 have died; 3 have

been hanged; and 5 are unaccounted for.

The number of male ticket-of-leave holders

under sentence of transportation on 30th

June, 1860, was 459. In concluding the

report the committee state that they

"would not advocate the adoption of a

general penal code more severe than that

which now exists. They entertain the be-

lief that short sentences, if rigidly carried

out to their full limit, are for more efficient

in repressing crime than more lengthened

periods subject to great reductions under

regulations of a varying character, and

liable to be capriciously administered; but

they are of opinion that the periods of

penal servitude prescribed by the existing

law ought to be extended with special

reference to this class of criminals, so as to

enable the Judges to take into considera-

tion their whole character and previous

career, and to pronounce such sentences as

will better guard the colony from a repeti-

tion of their crimes." With regard to the

criminals from Norfolk Island, the com

mittee say: "On the cessation of trans-

portation and the abandonment of Norfolk

Island as a Penal Establishment, the whole

of the desperate men who had been there

incarcerated were ruthlessly introduced

into this colony, not only without the con-

sent of its inhabitants, but against their

most earnest remonstrances. The neigh-

boring colony of Swan River has consented

that the criminals of Great Britain should

be banished to its shores. The people of

that colony are at this moment complain-

ing of the diminished number lately intro-

duced among them, and appear to regard a

continuance of transportation as essential

to their prosperity. The appliances of a

Penal Establishment are there in full

operation; and your committee believe

that the men whose presence is so hurtful

in this colony would, from the different

circumstances in which the people of Swan

River are placed, be far less injurious than

in Tasmania. Your committee, therefore,

deem the question of removing these

criminals from this colony to Swan River

worthy of the serious consideration of the

Government." The committee further

express their opinion "that the Governor

in Council should assume the entire con

trol of all persons ho!ding tickets-of-leave

or incarcerated at Port Arthur; and that

if such authority be not already possessed,

it ought to be immediately conferred by

legislation."

Pardon issued to George Epping, 1848, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1835 for burglary and sent to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).  Australian Convict Records, Tasmania 
     State Library South Australia

  

Convict built church at Port Arthur  

CC BY-SA 3.0  (Creative Commons)

Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Monday 14 July 1913, page 4 

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50715340 

PORT ARTHUR.

We cannot compliment those indivi-

duals who are busying themselves about

the restoration of the decaying relics of

the old convict days at Port Arthur,

and have no sympathy with such morbid

sentimentalism. Port Arthur is boun-

tifully endowed by nature. It is one

of the most beautiful spots in our lovely

island. It ought to be associated with

rural peace, contentment, and prosperity.

It was designed by an All-Wise Provi

dence as the home of human felicity, and

where existence should attain its high

est and most idyllic dorm. It was made

a hell upon earth. For years the baser

passions in human nature ran riot there.

The chain, the lash, the solitary cell,

and other devices for inflicting torture

on human beings, were in daily use, and

we have stories of fierce dogs being

stationed along the narrow channel and

neck which divide the peninsula from the

mainland to prevent the escape of the

unhappy beings immured there. The

crimes or offences for which some of

them were transported would, to-day, be

regarded as amply atoned for by a few

weeks or months' imprisonment, but un

der the brutal laws which then prevailed

men and women were transported over

leagues of ocean, and were immured un

der a system which was a disgrace to the

nation. Marcus Clarke*  has given a

succession of lurid pictures illustrative of

the system, and while he doubtless exer-

cised the novelist's privilege of making

the most of his material, there are

those to-day in Tasmania who assert

it was not overdrawn. Of course, we

do not assert that all the officials at

Port Arthur in the old days were Man-

rice Freres, and there were doubtless

many who sought to alleviate the lot

of the unhappy prisoners. But is the

history of the days when Tasmania was

a convict settlement such as the average

healthy Tasmanian mind would seek to

perpetuate? Is it not a disgraceful re-

cord, which they would rather, if pos-

sible, see blotted out? There was some

talk of a museum containing relics of

the old days, and a suggestion was made

of making a charge for tourists to in

spect these degrading mementoes, but it

is to be hoped Parliament will not think

of spending public money on such an

object. If the church can be preserved

and used as a means of propagating

Christian doctrines, and for inculcating

the love of one's fellow men, the project

might be worth consideration; but it

would probably be more economical to

erect a new edifice, free from the taint

which surrounds everything associated

with the old penal system.

* For the Term of his Natural Life  Marcus Clarke  A novel about a Port Arthur convict


 Port Arthur..




A postcard depicting a convict team ploughing a farm at Port Arthur, dated 1926  Public Domain



Inside the separate prison, Port Arthur, Tasmania  Public Domain