Oz (The HBO Show, not the techni-color fantasy world)

Remains of the Port Arthur prison. It was devestated by a bush
fire, as most things in Australia usually are.

While I was in Tasmania I had an opportunity to explore the sordid history of Australia's past, by visiting Port Arthur prison. It was established in 1830, and now (if you know Australian history), you might ask, "But Adam, that was during the days of transportation? Wasn't all of Australia technically a prison during that time?" First off, don't ask me stupid questions... Secondly, its a lot more complicated than that.

Van Dieman's Land (which is what they called Tasmania during the 1800's) was actually a prison within a prison. If you were sent to Hobart in VD Land that meant you were really unlucky or you screwed up royally somehow during your stay in Australia. In VD Land, almost all the roads that today are cut through the mountainous islands were done with manual prison labor, (which makes me wonder why they couldn't have cut some a few inches wider. Seriously, a guy can be killed driving on those narrow roads over 50 foot cliffs.) So is Tasmania was like the maximum security wing within the prison, than Port Arthur was like the isolation cells within the maximum security wing within the prison. It was a place set up to deal with troublemakers and repeat offenders, and in every sense of the word it was a prison.

However, I will come back to that. For now I want to discuss Australia as a prison colony. As most things in western culture do, we should look back to Rome as we start the tale of Australian history. For in Rome there were tales of a mysterious continent called, Terra Australis Icognita, which (as any of my fellow classmates in Mr. Klein's High School Latin Class should know) means Unknown Land of the South. The Continent wasn't first spotted until 1606 by a Dutch explorer named Willem Janszoon, (so the Aussies should count their blessings because the continent could have easily been called Janszoonia), but since Janszoon was Dutch he merely explored a little drew some maps, and went along his merry way without a thought of colonization. It wasn't until Captain James Cook exploration in 1770 that the British began to think, "Hey, I bet we can send prisoners there," that anyone really thought of the possibilities of colonies.

Of course, this was done for many reasons. First and foremost, a bunch of crazy colonists had just started some kind of uproar on the American Colonies and unceremoniously tossed the Brits out on their Imperial arses. This meant that the British Empire just had a huge chunk of land taken away from them, they lost their main supplier of logging and forestry (As the majority of British ships were made with American timber), and they lost a convenient place to ship off their more undesirable debtors and the like. So with Cook's rediscovery, the British Crown turned their sights on Australia not only for a source of timber and as a new land to go boldly forth and conquer the hell out of, but as a place to send the sort of people you wouldn't necessarily want to invite for tea and crumpets.

Thus, in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip docked the First Fleet in Australia and began unloading close to 800 prisoners, and that was just the beginning. Over the next 80 years Britain would send more than 165,000 prisoners, men, women, and children, to Australia... but why? I mean it cost the British Crown, thousands and thousands of dollars to send a convict clost to 10,000 miles around the world. Unlike transportation to America which was done at the expense of the debtors or the owners of the indentured servants, Australian transportation was done entirely on the Imperial dime. So why even bother.

The problem was that in Britain the population had risen dramatically during the 18th century. London was overcrowded, had a high unemployment rate and a high drunken rate, and child labor laws were few and far between. (Basically, think of any Charles Dickens novel.) So the place was a mess, and petty crimes such as theft had become a major problem. Britain had a very small police force with most citizens expected to police themselves and their neighbors. By the start of the 19th century Britain had repealed most the "Bloody Laws," meaning that the death penalty could no longer be given for minor offenses or small crimes, so the prisons were exploding with people. Basically, Australia offered a sort of odd hope, not only for population relief but, to many Brit, as a way to sort of get rid of the more undesirable elements of society once and for all.

Common crimes that were punishable by transportation were petty theft, repeat offending of the law, embezzlement, receiving or buying stolen goods, stealing fish from a river or pond (it gets weirder), setting fire to underwood, recommending that politicians get paid, starting a union, or being suspected of supporting Irish terrorism. Mostly, transportation was seen as humane alternative to the death penalty. Incidentally, crimes in England that still carried the death penalty were considered serious ones, such as: murder, rape, or impersonating an Egyptian (told you it got weirder). Also, Australia and Port Arthur, in particular, became home to several political prisoners including those from the many Scottish and Irish rebellions of the 1800's and even, oddly enough, some from the Upper and Lower Canadian Rebellions of 1839 and 1842 (Leave it to Canada to jump on the revolution train 60 years too late.)

Port Arthur is considered one of the most famous prison sites in the world. It is listed among the UN's Heritage Sites and quite frankly is pretty damn impressive. It was named Van Deimen's Land's Lieutenant Governor at the time George Arthur, and it was set up as a "model prison." In other words it was meant to work not only as a prison, but as a factory, a rehabilitation center, and even as a technical school for prisoners. All of this was explained to us by our Hobbit-like guide as he enthusiastically led us around the ground of the old prison. He called the whole a place a "well-oiled machine," and it kind of was. Not only did serve as a prison, but by the time most prisoners were released they had learned several crafts and at least one trade such as stone-cutting, carpentry, black-smithing, etc, and could even earn a small wage. Additionally, within Port Arthur was established the world's first juvenile correctional facility, Point Puer, where young convict boys were actually separated from their older counterparts. The proof of all this, seems to be in the "pudding that is not getting stolen from your window-sill," as most prisoners, once released went out into greater Australia, bought some land, and became productive happy citizens... that is not say that the prison was a paradise, just effective.

Memorial to the dog line and all the cuddily puppies that once
lived there.

As with most prisons, the conditions were harsh, meals were meager, and your cell-mate was probably looking to jam something somewhere in you, the good news was that it was basically inescapable. Port Arthur was established on a peninsula that narrowed down to a mere 18 miles wide at a place called Eagleneck, and again further inland where the peninsula met the mainland of Tasmania. At Eagleneck the British soldiers set up a line of half-starved mastiff dogs chained in a straight line called the "dog line." It ran across the entirety of Eagleneck and the dogs were chained far enough away so that they could not attack one another, but close enough that no person could walk through them without being attacked. To further complicate things the water around Port Arthur was known to be infested with sharks, and the terrifying cries of the Tasmanian wildlife in the deep dark forests of the night were more than enough incentive to stop anyone from trying something foolish, but of course they did anyway.

In the almost 50 years it acted as a prison, there were only less than two dozen escape attempts, and most never succeeded. Less than a handful of people ever actually managed to escape from Port Arthur, usually in bizarre ways. Martin Cash, an Irish prisoner, is the most famous as he escaped from Port Arthur twice. Being an educated man he was able to swim around Eagleneck Point after sitting for two days and watching the British soldiers and memorizing their routines and patterns of march. He became a Bushranger (which is a legendary figure in Aussie history, though it really only means that he robbed and killed people and took their money.) He even escaped being hung for his second escape, (Because once you escape Port Arthur there is really no where else to go. Even if you get off Tasmania, you still stuck in Australia), because the people of Australia admired him so much they created an uproar and his sentence was communed to life in prison. His fellow gang members were not so lucky as they were still hung.

However, my one of my favorite stories is of George "Billy" Hunt. He escaped Port Arthur and disguised himself as a Kangaroo to get passed the guards at Eagleneck. The plan would have actually worked until one of the hungry guards decided to go hunting and set his sights on the kangaroo Billy was impersonating. To keep from being shot he had to stand-up and reveal that he was in fact a prisoner and not a kangaroo. He was immediately brought back to Port Arthur where he was punished with 50 lashes.

In another attempt 6 prisoners managed to steal the warden's private yacht. They actually managed to sail out of the port and northward up the Australian coast. They plundered and stole whatever they could find from settlements along the coast and they managed to get as high was Queensland, until they decided to turn back. They promptly turned the ship around and went back to Port Arthur to turn themselves in. Unfortunately they missed the opening to peninsula and eventually reached Hobart where they were captured again and sent back to Port Arthur.

There are alot more tales about similar escape attempts, most of which end in failure. Port Arthur was not only a historic place but a beautiful place as well. It was oddly British in the fact that the trees and even the grass were transplanted flora from England (because to the Brits if a place is not as English as possible than its not considered properly colonized.) Nowadays, Port Arthur is only a prison for the thousands of tourists that come and see it every year. It was closed in 1877, and almost instantly became a tourist attraction.

As for the rest of Australia, transportation by England stopped in 1868, as gold was discovered in several parts of Australia and the colony was in the grips of a massive gold rush. Thus, people in England were starting to commit transport worthy crimes (like suggesting that their local mayor be paid), in order to get free transportation to a place where they could strike it rich. I suppose it no longer seemed like a fitting punishment.

So nowadays over 70% of all Australians can claim convict ancestry, though surprisingly most seem to avoid the subject. I have asked a few people if they are descended from convicts and they usually change the subject or tell me politely to stop bothering them, because its not a proper subject to talk about at a urinal. Other Aussies, are quick to say that their family arrived after transportation, and still others seem reluctant to even claim that their family at some point might have been British. Most seem content to assume that they spontaneously appearred on the continent and do not question if there was anything before that. However, that is not true for all as some Aussies are proud of their heritage and their roots. However, on the plus side the supermarkets do have a wide variety of "cakes with a nail-file filling." Both delicious and escapingly good.