Port Arthur Tasmania

Port Arthur is a superbly preserved collection of penal colony buildings If there is one place in Tasmania which should be visited by every Australian it is Port Arthur.

Port Arthur Tasmania is a magnificently preserved penal colony is a powerful reminder of Australia's early history. For just a moment forget the beautiful English trees, the neat paths and the manicured lawns and try to imagine what it must have been like to have lived in the teeming slums of London's East End, to have stolen a bolt of cotton, or some foodstuffs or been involved in some petty crime and, having been sentenced to seven years transportation, to have found yourself at the other end of the world in this god-forsaken institution.

The scale of the punishment seems so out of proportion to the crimes which were committed.

It is extraordinary to contemplate that 12 500 convicts served their time at Port Arthur between 1830 and 1877.