Port Arthur

Port Arthur penal colony was established in 1830 as a place of secondary punishment for convicts who had committed serious crimes within Tasmania or in New South Wales. Life was very hard for the prisoners, who were treated very badly. But during the years of its operation, until 1877, the prison, and indeed, Port Arthur itself, became a self supporting industrial centre.
The beautifully laid out grounds and the buildings within, were all created by the prisoners, and have been restored and improved upon, in recent years, such that it is hard to imagine, when finding oneself in such beautiful surroundings, the horrors that actually took place there.