Port Arthur · A Penal Settlement on the Cape

Port Arthur sits on a peninsula in Tasmania, a place where Britain sent its worst convicts: water on two sides, dogs and sentries sealing the land side, so that once a man was sent in he did not come out.

It held a prison, a boys’ reformatory, an asylum and a cemetery; convicts worked in chains, and breaking the rules meant the lash. After it closed in 1877 a fire burned most of the buildings, leaving brick walls and the skeleton of a church.

At night there is a “ghost tour”, guides walking visitors through the gardens and the ruins. On the island the wind runs faster than in the city.

Haunted Ruins / Tasmania · Australia / 1830