Exploring rinns from Tasmania’s dark past

Press, 26 April 1988, Page 25

Exploring rinns from Tasmania’s dark past

By

Naylor Hillary

BcWsr. 2S3C'.. Br.d 15*’"’ iS ,77.27;/ J 2S 3 v. 7 1777 - >• Tabula J - L--*'2=ancs ckc t.iqre. i.-d tr.a.ny years liter thei pris-ims were -clbsedTasmanians ::r-ed hapcj to ’ | " 1 . Bush j , fires swjept ir.rc'igr. ime aid woycen buildings! sicr.e s'rucyjres •*ere y-Brried for jijeir B-t :.-Je toir.icts ib.ilt solidly M-i:r. remained. Ar.d tc-ttay :r.e (Port Aridur betilemem. , par-’ tially reSforec? hafijoe-£€7-!7.€A’ Ci- 37. d cktc75 ‘ ft; from Hobart. alrng a!r:ac :.:asm:;4e-X me ‘pt:?; :mo-efsiCnsT sjfr"me 5 jfr"me G’rlv days of settlement. 1 The serdng is :dy:?.-2.-Sweeping green lawns ar.d groves 'of j.English Soaks runf down to a "little icove mat oncie I served as -me landing | place for ■ hew prisoners, i Visitors -tian picnic) now where once chain gangs clanked i -Jff ’ to [hard labour Small cruise'boats, take tours! ito the Is'le of the Dead. : the cemetery

where h.r.dreds — perhaps thousands — of convicts w> ■ died at Por. tE Escapes from Port a-? - -a--- -n-o t-.~ I prison is set or. the Tasmanian Peninsula. state by a -- m-metre strip of lane at Easlehawk Neck 'X'here visitors step now’O HCTT.Ze ’7.6 CkZS £7.C caves. d-ard-cogs' a7.z a S 77.3.1 ■; di 77’. SO 7; — l —l •and •:•-*. of Port Arthur. | preserved conu vict bUi-mma is I the Model Prison, a radical change it contains punishment ; cells w here, hard cases (could t>e confined for [weeks — small, totally silent, totally dark holes. targe building nearby was ; once tie lunatic- asylum) for prisoners who were! driven pr.ad But tie most impressive! rums Ire those of the) 0712’na' = nint67tiarv 27.c.' : the ch inch.. These were! ' built bv convict labour m the mid-1 i3os ) The church was de; signed py a convict called Mason 'and it retains ■ .something of the g'randeu; of a rum in the English .countryside half a world

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