May 6 - Starting Exploration in and around Hobart

The first thing I noticed here is that it's fall! Sun comes up late and goes down early. Plus, although the weather was supposed to be low 50's and I thought we were prepared, I didn't account for how much nastier it is when it rains and that the winds are coming in pretty much unimpeded from Antarctica. There is not much between us and there at the south end of Tasmania.

Last night, we took a short walk in Hobart to a fish restaurant and crashed early -- in bed and asleep by 8:15pm. Waking up at 5:15am was not bad -- amazing to sleep thru that long the first night and 17 hours out of our normal schedule. Today, we started with a brief tour of Hobart, then took a side trip to Port Arthur and visited a wonderful presentation on the convict history of Australia and Tasmania at the prison that was maintained there.

Interior of Hobart Town Hall

 This was supposed to be an official optional trip, but not enough people signed up, so our guide, Vic, graciously rented a car and took 4 of us off to Port Arthur.  Along the way, we made a couple scenic stops -- at a blowhole and Tasman Arch (named for the Dutchman, Abel Tasman, who discovered the island -- he was also a big player in New Zeeland with a National Park named after him). We also drove through Doo Town and discovered that most of the cottages were named with 'Doo' in the title:  Doo Drop In, Doo Me, Dr. Doolittle, Just Doo It and many others.

Main Prison at Port Arthur

We got to the prison museum in time for lunch and a quick tour of the section of the facility that talked about the lives of 52 different inmates. To add to the interest, when we got our tickets, we each got a playing card and got to follow our inmate's path to incarceration and afterwards. Both Jim and I drew the cards of young men who were accused of stealing. Mine was a 15 year old who stole food and was sentenced to 7 years 'transportation' (which meant being sent to Australia, from which the likelihood of returning was quite small). He learned a skill at the prison and had a successful life after release. Jim's had stolen a bunch of umbrellas at age 13, but he was less successful -- an inveterate gambler who apparently came to no good. In England at that time, you could be charged as an adult at age 7 and sentenced to hang as early as age 9. One man got life in prison for stealing a handkerchief.

Most men and women were sent to Sydney to start and removed to Port Arthur if they were seriously bad news or if there was no place for them in Sydney. Port Arthur had separate housing for the juveniles and actually worked to teach them trades, which seemed to be pretty progressive for the time. If you didn't follow the rules or tried to escape, you could be assigned to a chain gang -- a group of 7 or 8 prisoners chained together with leg irons, which were often very heavy. Men were assigned to work like cutting trees and sandstone. For a while there was even a boat-building operation. If you served your 7 years, you could earn your freedom and a plot of land, and there were people in England who tried to get arrested and sent to Australia to get a second chance.

Initially the boat trip was pretty gruesome, but as soon as the authorities wised up and only paid the captains for live convicts, the survival rate improved greatly to 99%. Immigrants fared less well since they paid in advance and it didn't matter to the captain if they survived the trip or not. It was a nine-month trip and cost the equivalent of a year's salary. Plus if you wanted to go back to England, you also had to pay the government for your original transport, so it cost two years' pay and most of a year of your life to get home.

Port Arthur was a early adopter of solitary confinement as a way to have prisoners reflect on their misbehavior and choose to reform as a result instead of being subjected to harsh physical punishment like flogging with a cat of nine tails. The isolation was extreme. All kinds of care was taken to prevent the men from communicating with each other in any way. Any time they left their cubicles (about 5 x 7 with beds that were strung between hooks and could be rolled up during the day), they were hooded and completely wrapped in cloth to prevent anyone from being able to recognize them. Their prison building had an interesting chapel -- each spot was walled off with a wooden door from the next and there was no sitting during the service. This actually had the unfortunate result of driving many of them crazy. The prison opened in 1833 and was abandoned in 1877. In its later years, it served as an insane asylum.

Each standing slot in the Separate Prison Chapel is segegrated with a wooden door

A typical cell in the Separate Prison. The bed unhooks and rolls up. The only humans you ever saw were the minister and an eyeball at the cell door eye hole.

Over 250,000 prisoners were shipped to Australia, and initially they were ashamed of their heritage after they were released. In later years, though, the convict past has been reclaimed and has become a badge of courage for the following generations.

When we got back to Hobart, we had a group dinner at 'Shippies' a bar and restaurant famous for its connection to the sailing world.