Van Diemen's Land

Thursday, July 30th

We picked up our rental car this morning, a sporty red Hyundai hatchback. We managed to find our way out of Hobart and stopped for the morning in Richmond to see Australia's oldest bridge, church, and cemetery. It was a quaint little spot, and after an hour or so of wandering headed on to the Tasman Peninsula.

It is a beautiful drive through wineries and along the coast. Going onto the peninsula you pass through an area called Eaglehawk Neck, a very narrow stretch of land. There are some interesting natural sights here, including the Tessellated Pavement- an area of sedimentary rock on the coast that, due to some unlikely geological events, now looks like it was cut to be tiles or used as a quarry. It naturally formed perfectly square edges. I didn't really understand what people were talking about until we got there, and it looks fairly unremarkable until you realize it is all natural, and then it becomes slightly amazing.

On the peninsula we also stopped at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Center for feeding time. These animals are the size of a small raccoon, and while they hardly resemble the whirlwind "Taz" from the cartoons, the awful noises and slightly crazy temperament are pretty spot on. The two housed together made an awful racket of snarls and growls at each other over the hunks of meat thrown into their pen. They tried to steal the meat and run away, got into tug-of-wars and generally beat each other up for the few minutes it took them to consume it, bones, fur, and all. Tassie Devils have a bite pressure similar to a saltwater croc, and it takes the same amount of pressure to open their jaws too. So you really want to avoid making them angry! In general they will stay away from humans, but will fight if backed into a corner. 

The devils used to live on the Aus mainland as well, but now exist only on Tasmania. There is an epidemic sweeping through the population called facial tumor disease, and it is killing the little critters much faster than any scientists can figure out what to do about it. The population is dropping severely, and combined with habitat loss and high rates of roadkill instances, the devils are declining quickly. Even if they aren't exactly cuddly, it is sad to think of the state of their future.

Only another 20km further on, we get to the main attraction of the day. Australia has a colorful convict history, but perhaps no place more so than Tasmania, where the troublemakers of Australia went. The penal colony or Port Arthur saw over 12,000 men between 1830-1877. These were inmates directly from England who couldn't be trusted in Australia, or where semi-free Australian convicts were sent when they got in trouble. There was a separate camp for boys, and the youngest inmate was 9.5 years old. It was an isolated area, so in addition to the actual prison and work areas there was an entire community of workers and administrators and their families. The whole area is a designated historic site and is open to the public now. Some of the houses are restored, but the main buildings are left in a state of semi-ruin. It is almost a beautiful area, until you think about the dark history there. 

The Port Arthur "experiment", as it is referred to in the visitors information, serves as the foundation for much of the modern reform system. It was one of the first places to use solitary confinement, constant surveillance, and hard labor to reform convicts. In many places in England at the time, the prisoners were thrown into crowded jails to sit and wait out their sentence. While Port Arthur could not really be called successful (though I don't know what penal colony really could) it led the way for much of what we have in place even today.

We took a short guided boat tour of the harbor, passing the Isle of the Dead where convicts and civilians were buried, learned about a number of escape attempts, and were told that if you head straight out of the harbour, the next land mass you will hit is Antarctica. After the boat we spent time wandering through the buildings and around the grounds. We decided to stick around and go on a ghost tour in the evening.

The ghost tour was sufficiently spooky with out being hoakey. The grounds are creepy enough at night, and we went out with a guide and a group of about 15. We learned stories about different historical events from the place as well as tales of people seeing or interacting with the ghosts that remain. We got to go into the church with no roof, and it was pretty spectacular being inside a building but looking up at all the stars. We also went UNDER the doctors house to his "dissection room" where he could examine bodies of the recently deceased. It was against the law at the time to study bodies, but apparently convicts were exempt, so the doctor at Port Arthur was a lucky man indeed. The room under his house had no windows, no lights, and no ventilation. Other inmates had to hold candles or lanterns while he worked, which is a pretty gruesome thought. Apparently many people think they smell formaldehyde in the room, even though it has been centuries since any has been used there. 

We didn't see any ghosts on our tour, but did see a bunch of wallabies hopping around. We got certificates that say "I survived the Port Arthur Ghost Tour", so maybe some people aren't so lucky. We drove back to Hobart, being careful not to hit the plethora of animals out on the road at night. It was a successful trip, and we didn't kill anything.