LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Tas-Port Arthur Penal Colony
Australia's modern/civilized history is rather short ... our colonization was started around 1788.
I'll keep adding photos to this thread that I took on our very short visit there recently. I'll add them building by building ... there's actually only a few I took shots of.
Killing Ground
Port Arthur on Tasmania's Tasman Peninsula has a solid part in both our early history of this period but also a dramatic and tragic episode only a few years ago.
Now called the Port Arthur Massacre ... this is our 'Columbine'.
On Sunday, 28 April 1996, in Port Arthur, a professional combat shooter, Martin Bryant, opened fire in the Broad Arrow Cafe at Port Arthur in Tasmania.
In less than a minute 20 people lay dead, 19 of them killed with single shots to the head, fired from the right hip. From the first bullet that killed the first victim, approximately 15 seconds passed, during which 12 people were dead and 10 more were wounded.
Bryant moved to the cafe' next door and when he left 29 rounds were fired in the cafe and gift shop areas combined now in approximately 90–120 seconds. In that time, Bryant killed 20 people.
From there moved out into the car-park and proceeded to stalk and kill more people. When it was over, and the Special Operatives Police had captured him, 35 people were dead and 21 were wounded. The youngest was just 3 years old.
Within a matter of weeks legislation was passed to removed semi-automatic weapons from the Australian population and a gun buy-back proceeded. It is now illegal to own any semi-automatic gun in Australia.
More details available here if you wish ... Port Arthur Massacre
Convict History
Port Arthur was originally started as a timber gathering settlement using convict labour from Britain. If you were deemed a trouble maker or stole as little as a loaf of bread you could end up doing 7 years or more hard labour at Port Arthur. It started in 1833 and closed in 1877.
Today it is a heritage site of more than 30 historic buildings and ruins.
The Church
This is the old stone church in Port Arthur that the convicts built and had to attend as part of their possible rehabilitation. It was constructed in 1836-37.
Built on high ground to overlook the convict settlement, the church could accommodate over one thousand souls at its services.
The church was never consecrated, due to its use by prisoners of different denominations, but was representative of the authorities’ goal to reform the convict population through religion.
The church was destroyed by fire in 1884 and has undergone repeated conservation work throughout the 20th century.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks