Tasmania: day at Port Arthur - 13.9

Today there are 500 000 people living in Tasmania, Hobart is about 200 000 in population.

First stop in the morning was to introduce a bridge that saved the locals from 1.5h drive to get to Hobart from neighbouring peninsula. A long story about ship bumping into the bridge, part of the bridge collapsing, accidents that this caused and how the ship lays on the bottom of the bay till this day followed.

So what I learned today is that most of the history here in Tasmania revolves around prisoners and everything here seems to be built by convicts (roads, houses, bridges etc.). Convicts from British Isles and its colonies had been transported all over the world between 1619 and 1875. First they were sent to West Indies and North America, after American Revolution other destinations had to be found. While most of those transported after 1787 ended up in Australia (Sydney), others were sent to Gibraltar and Bermuda.

Route to Sydney went between Australia and Tasmania, French had shown increasing interest for Tasmania and England saw a threat to their ships as soon as French would settle in Tasmania. So English dispatched two ships with 300 convicts, some soldiers and free settlers to make a settlement to prevent the French controlling the shipping lane to Sydney. Another ship was sent on the way from Sydney which established the first settlement at Risdon Cove in 1803. Risdon Cove being the 2nd oldest place in Australia. There were total of 70 000 prisoners sent to Australia and Tasmania from 1803 to 1853 and 99% of them would never return home. At the time Tasmania was seen as a one prison island - 70% of the population was prisoners.

Before Europeans arrived in Risdon Cove the locals had not seen foreign people for 12 000 years - this is known as the longest isolation in human history. Aborigines were isolated in Tasmania since it became an island and was separated from Victoria.

On the way to our next longer stop in Richmond there were more stories and pauses on the way. We saw the initial location, Risdon Cove, where Europeans landed and met local Aborigines in 1803. We heard about local prison, roads built by prisoners during old times, about famous convicts of the time and much more. Our guide was super! He was full of information and all sorts of facts. He seemed to know everything about different cultures, sports and TV shows :) When he heard I'm from Estonia he said immediately that the capital is Tallinn (he also mentioned Eurovision song contest and then mixed Estonians up with Latvians :) ). Most people just go blank when they hear a country named Estonia, few moments later they would go "and where is that?" :)

Bit more about Richmond - it used to be 3rd biggest town in Tasmania, as soon as abridge got built and traffic was not going through Richmond any longer it became a ghost town. There are one of the oldest buildings in Australia though, like the oldest existing Catholic Church in Australia, dating back to 1835.

On the way to Port Arthur - the most secured prison of the time - there were many stops, for an example the only sea canal in Australia, two passageways that led to Port Arthur and had to be crossed by escaping prisoners. So Port Arthur was absolutely the worst place where prisoners could ever end up at, only the worst convicts were sent there. Throughout the years there were many escape attempts, but only 2 groups (one 3 and other 7 people) are known to escape Port Arthur.

Once we arrived we had 3.5 hours to look around and take the ferry tour. Quite many of the buildings have been destroyed, but general overview was given which was quite enough. I was surprised how the prison worked - all convicts were trained up on different skills (woodwork, construction, shoe making etc.) and taught to read and write. This was all in order to prepare them for life after prison. But the stories about the amount and kind of work they had to do were horrifying of course.

After Port Arthur we drove by couple of scenic places on our way back. At the bus we learned about the life of Tasmanian Devils - those are native protected animals, they are about the size of a cat and live all around the island. As with many species they are decreasing in population and hence are protected.

This was a long long day, lots of walking and just exhausting. Me going to bed now :)