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Port Arthur is a small town and former penal settlement on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, the island state of Australia. The town is about one and a half hours drive from the state capital Hobart.
The major attraction of Port Arthur is the Port Arthur Historic Site, the 40-hectare (100-acre) site of a former convict colony. Many highly recognizable ruins remain, including the penitentiary, the hospital, the insane asylum, and the church. Some portions of the site have been recreated but much is in the original condition. The Port Arthur Historic Site is Australia's best known historical site from the convict era, and one of eleven sites making up the UNESCO World Heritage listing "Australian Convict Sites."
Port Arthur was first established as a timber station in 1830, supporting the infant colony of Van Diemen's Land. It became the site of a major penal (prison) colony for... Read more
Port Arthur is a small town and former penal settlement on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, the island state of Australia. The town is about one and a half hours drive from the state capital Hobart.
The major attraction of Port Arthur is the Port Arthur Historic Site, the 40-hectare (100-acre) site of a former convict colony. Many highly recognizable ruins remain, including the penitentiary, the hospital, the insane asylum, and the church. Some portions of the site have been recreated but much is in the original condition. The Port Arthur Historic Site is Australia's best known historical site from the convict era, and one of eleven sites making up the UNESCO World Heritage listing "Australian Convict Sites."
Port Arthur was first established as a timber station in 1830, supporting the infant colony of Van Diemen's Land. It became the site of a major penal (prison) colony for male convicts from 1833, a place of secondary punishment for re-offenders, in the 19th-century era of convict transportation to Van Diemen's Land (the former name of Tasmania). It very quickly gained a reputation as a "hell on earth". At its peak in the late 1840s, Port Arthur became a near self-sufficient settlement, driven by the labor of its tormented inmates. Ultimately, after a couple of decades of decline in the 1850s and 1860s, Port Arthur finally ended its days as a penal settlement in 1877.
Having arrived at Port Arthur, most people view the ruins on foot. All tickets include a 30-minute ferry trip. Visitors who purchase guided tours of the Isle of the Dead or Point Puer take this ferry to the two locations: there are no self-tours of these locations.
For the less mobile traveler, Visitor Centre facilities allow for independent access, including the Café, Restaurant, Gift Shop, Interpretation Gallery and Rest Rooms. The remainder of the Historic Site comprises a variety of areas, some of which provide independent access, and others which require assisted access. Disabled parking is provided adjacent to the Visitor Centre entry. A courtesy buggy provides a regular drop off and pickup service around the site for disabled visitors. (Enquire on arrival, at the information counter, for times of operation).
The Historic Site is open every day of the year from 8:30 AM. Visitors may tour the site until dusk, and those on a Ghost Tour remain until the conclusion of their tour in the late evening.
Some of the Site is ruined, less from neglect and more as a consequence of several severe bushfires in the 1890s. Ruins are partially restored but the Site does not intend to reconstruct them completely. The major points of interest inside the Historic Site are:
LOCAL TIME
4:00 pm
May 19, 2022
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LOCAL CURRENCY
AUD
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Tasmania is similar to the one-storied America, but there are eucalyptus forests. The city of Hobart (population of 200,000) is located in the south of the island, and it looks like Alaska. The air temperature in Tasmania rarely rises above 24 ° C and never falls below zero. There are 2 draw... |