Port Arthur, Accessible Tasmania
Port Arthur Historic Site is fully accessible and a top rate must-see in Tassie
Port Arthur Historic Site has an intriguing convict history from the nineteenth century. It is a beautiful and accessible site. This is an overview of the history.
Australia is one big island with a few smaller islands close by. The largest of these is the island of Tasmania which is also a state of Australia.
If you visit Tasmania, one of the places to see is Port Arthur Historic Site. Port Arthur Historic Site is on the Tasman Peninsula, about 100 km south-east of Hobart.
Why Port Arthur is an important historic and cultural site
The native Australians, known collectively as Aborigines, are among the world's oldest known civilizations. When white Europeans came to Australia, a new chapter in Australian history began. Port Arthur is one of the starting points for modern Australia.
Australians sometimes talk about their convict past. Starting in 1787, the English sent ships of convicts to Australia, beginning with the famous First Fleet. The convicts were put to work in Australia, trying to build a British settlement in a very strange and different land.
The system of transportation of prison convicts from Britain to Australia continued until 1856. Many of the convicts gained their freedom through hard work and the passage of time. For the prisoners who continued to commit crimes, there was a need for secondary imprisonment.
In the 1830s, the isolated logging station at Port Arthur started to receive convict labourers.
From then until about 1877, Port Arthur rose and then fell in importance as a major industrial prison. Sir John Franklin and Lady Franklin visited Port Arthur to inspect the operations there in 1837, when Sir John was the Governor of Tasmania. The small settlement in place then expanded to house what was, for its day, a modern, model industrial prison. To us, much of it looks barbaric, but at the time prison reformers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Howard in England were proposing the type of changes that Port Arthur displays.
Where to find out more
For an official statement of the significance of the Port Arthur site, the Australian government has put the document "Port Arthur Historic Site: National Heritage Values" on line.
More information about wheelchair and slow walker accessibility at Port Arthur Historic Site: "Port Arthur for Wheelchair Users".
More information about visiting Port Arthur if you have other special needs, including perceptual impairments, vision loss, deafness, or claustrophobia: "Port Arthur Access - Blind, Deaf".
And for all your questions and some great ideas about travelling in Australia, Phillipa Rowlands writes on Austalia, New Zealand and Oceania travel. Phillipa's "Travel Guide to Tasmania" will tell you more about this charming island, and you can email Phillipa if you have any questions about Down Under.
Do you like to mix history and travel? Ginger Groves writes about just that: Historic Travel at Suite101.com.
All on-line references were current at the time this article was originally published on Suite101.com.
