Showcase-Sunday: Port Arthur - A walk through darkness

The State of Tasmania is one of Australia's most beautiful locations. It lies south of the mainland and is the only Australian State not actually attached to the rest of the country. we, the other part of Australia often make jokes at Tasmanian's expense, Aussie's can be quite irreverent, but we love them like the weird brothers and sisters they are. 😂 src

Tasmania, (Tassie), is literally full of stunning wilderness, quaint towns and villages and is a perfect example of the diversity one finds in Australia. It's a superb place to spend a couple of weeks and my wife and I have just booked another trip there for my 50th birthday next year in 2020 - I know right? I hardly look a day over 49! We have been there before but want to spend some more time exploring as it's such a lovely place.

Tasmania has a dark past though, and lives in infamy for a few reasons dating back into the early 1800's and more recently too.

In the early 1800's the penal colony of Port Arthur was established. It was one of the harshest penal colonies run by the British Empire and about 40% of all the convicts transported to Australia by the British were sent to Port Arthur; That's a total of 65,000 convicts.

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It was brutally hard for the convicts, whose trials and tribulations often began during the long journey from England, and conditions were only a little better than their British captors, there to guard them - They weren't brutalised by their captors of course.

Many convicts perished due to starvation, exposure to the elements, illness, which was rife, and of course brutal bashings, rapes, hanging and flogging for transgressions real or perceived. Life was extremely harsh for the inmates, many of whom were convicted to transportation for merely stealing a loaf of bread back in England. It's easy to expect the inmates to be completely disgruntled and despondent. And they were.

I had two ancestors transported there in the early 1800's, both of whom had been handed the death sentence back in England for petty crimes, only to have that sentence commuted to transportation at the last minute. One was female, a maid, and the other a man. Both did 20 years there, and survived.

I have been to Port Arthur. We spent a whole day there wandering, learning about it and discovering places like the asylum, the medical section, the quarters (cells) and Isle of the Dead cemetery and so on. It was incredibly interesting and a little confronting.

We also did a night tour. They actually call it the ghost tour which was somewhat unnerving. To be honest I was not overly keen on the night tour however we felt it was necessary to truly understand the place, the tragedy and sorrow that seems impregnated in the very stones that make up the buildings, as if the sorrow and misery has seeped into the rock itself. I was less interested when the guide suggested I carry the lantern and bring up the rear. (There was a lantern at the front of the tour, one in the middle and one at the back as we went from building to building. It was pitch black except for the feeble lantern-light and I was feeling quite exposed I guess.) It's a very eerie place in the day time, but at night? Downright scary.

I didn't see any ghosts however many actually do. I felt something though; I can't explain it but it was definitely not of my imagination. It freaked me out a little. It was a feeling of deep sorrow or misery, an oppressive feeling that I didn't like one little bit.

There are many photographs at the entrance to the tourist centre that previous tourists have sent in and we studied them for a while. They depict ghostly images, shapes and shadows things that seem out of place in the photos...Unexplained things. Again, we saw nothing but the feeling was unmistakable...I'm not one to feel uncomfortable in the dark either so...Yeah, I don't know.

Earlier in the day we were following the written guide-booklet and visiting each building one by one; Some are still completely intact, one such being the asylum. This is where prisoners were taken, or held, when their mental state was questionable, which occurred a lot of course. I also believe people were incarcerated there if they got angry, had a fight with an inmate or a guard simply didn't like them. Port Arthur was that sort of place.

I can't explain why, however I was not able to remain in the building for long. I mean I was in there and wandering around for a couple of minutes when something came over me and I just walked out. Fast. They have cells int here and I walked into one and it felt...Odd.

It was...Oppressive, dark and brooding. I felt a definite malevolence exuding from the walls weighing down on me, pushing me down, almost physically it seemed. I don't really have the words to describe it unfortunately, other than to say I was not wanted there. Maybe others have felt it too, I don't know. I certainly didn't go back in or on the night tour either.

On the tour the guide relates stories from back in the day, of life there, of break-out attempts, fights that ended in death, punishments that were barbaric in nature and brutally administered and also of life there for guards and their families who also resided there. It's very interesting.

My ancestors both did 20 years before being released and making their way back to mainland Australia - Getting back to England was beyond their ability of course, financially. As I said, one was female. I can only imagine the hardships faced by male inmates but for a female convict it must have been shockingly brutal. I'd like to think she didn't suffer, but in reality she was probably brutally and cruelly debased. All because she stole a silver spoon from her employer in England winning her the death sentence and eventual transportation to Port Arthur when her sentence was commuted. Seems unreal doesn't it?

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Located in a garden area at Port Arthur is a small monument laid down quite recently. You will not hear it referred to by the guides and it's considered impolite to ask about it.

You see, Port Arthur's brutal history didn't end with the closing of the penal colony in about 1877.

On April 28-29 1996 an individual called Martin Bryant went on a shooting spree leaving 35 dead and 23 injured. Men, women and children of all ages. This gunman was indiscriminate. Martin Bryant had killed people at another location that morning and after traveling to Port Arthur he paid his entry fee and proceeded to the cafe as many others do.

He ordered and ate his meal then calmly pulled out his guns and started shooting from the hip. In the cafe and gift shop area Bryant fired 29 rounds in just under 2 minutes, killed 22 people and injured 12. He moved to the carpark, his grizzly work still incomplete.

He shot people who had taken shelter behind tour buses, even coming back to shoot a lady in the back who he had only previously wounded. He went onto a bus and shot another lady twice, calmly and with no hint of emotion. She died later. He left the car park and continued to the toll booth.

Here he found a woman running, carrying a child with her other daughter running slightly ahead. The children were 3 (Madeline) and 6 (Alannah). He pulled the car he was driving up to a stop and the mother (Nanette) stopped also, thinking it was someone offering them a hand. Shelter maybe.

He got out of the car, put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her to her knees. She pleaded, "please don't hurt my babies."

He put his gun to her temple and fired. Dead. He fatally shot Madeline in the chest right there and shot twice at Alannah who was running to hide behind a nearby tree. He followed, placed his gun to her neck and fatally shot her also. This was all witnessed by other's who were hiding a short distance away which is why we know what Nanette said as she implored for mercy for her children.

Martin Bryant was captured the next day. I would have stabbed him in the neck with a blunt instrument if it was me who caught him but...

On the 22nd of November Bryant was sentenced to 35 life sentences with no chance for parole. He was incarcerated in Risdon Prison, in solitary confinement. He is allowed no visitors besides immediate family. (I would allow him no visitors at all...No light either. But that's just me.)

I wonder what it takes for an individual to do something like this? It was an event that changed Australia forever. Many conspiracy theories have circulated about there being two other shooters and anti-gun lobby groups had a field day of course. Those assholes love it when gun-massacre's occur as it supports their, often clueless, case. The government were forced to make amendments to gun laws, which they did; There was a gun buy-back scheme where newly prohibited firearms were purchased and destroyed by the government. The event has quite naturally seen many contentious and bitter debates raging back and forth. None of which I have, or will engage in.

No matter what side of the gun debate a person is on, or what conspiracy one subscribes to though, I think a moment must be given to recall the victims:

I urge all Australian's to visit Port Arthur. It is a history lesson we should all know and understand. From brutal penal colony to site of Australia's largest gun-massacre there are lessons for us all.

Thanks for reading. I know this post is pretty depressing but we cannot forget the past and what happened here. To do so would be to disrespect the memory of those who gave their lives.

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Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default

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The original post was written and posted by me in August 2017. This post has been reworked, with several hundred words added, and reposted for the @nonameslefttouse #showcase-sunday concept.