Port Arthur
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Port Arthur used to be one of Australia’s most notorious convict settlements, it’s remote and on a piece of land jutting over water which suffers under swirling fog, grey skies and the dense quiet of the bush. The prison itself is of pale sandstone and was built on a narrow promontory of rock and surrounded on three sides by shark infested waters, in many respects it’s Australia’s Alcatraz. In the mid 19th Century the hardest criminals were brought here, where as well as being put to hard graft they were hooded and kept silent, the intention being that they reflected on their crimes and didn’t egg on other criminals, this was one of the first prisons to use psychological rather than physical punishment. This is Tasmania’s most popular tourist attraction, partly probably to do with the place’s unsavory history, and the Island of the Dead where people who died in the prison are buried is also part of the appeal – visitor say it has a melancholic quality which goes beyond the mist and grey bush.
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Photo by flickr user Charlie Brewer
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