Port Arthur ruins. by blinkings
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Description
It was here that the vicious floggings were carried out. Port Arthur Penal Settlement – named in honour of Lt-Governor George Arthur – began life in 1830 as a punishment-oriented timber station. With the progressive addition of further industries, tailored for heavy and light labour, Port Arthur held a key position within the colony's judicial system until its closure in 1877.
Replacing Macquarie Harbour and Maria Island as the primary source of secondary punishment, Port Arthur's 47-year operation was due largely to its geographical isolation and the availability of natural resources. Chief among these was timber, and harvesting was carried out until the 1870s. Scattered outcrops of sandstone and dolerite provided other materials for construction, tracts of land stretching back from the cove providing agricultural and farming land for supplementing rations.
Port Arthur achieved prominence under the regimented governance of Captain Charles O'Hara Booth (1833–44). During his command, convicts experienced a system of administration based on corporal punishment. Overseers and constables relied upon the threat of the cat-o-nine-tails, irons or sensory deprivation in solitary confinement, with extreme offences tried in Hobart. The daily work of the convicts ranged from ganged labour – including timber-getters in irons, and unironed garden gangs – to relatively skilled labour in the shipyards or artificers' shops. Combined with scholastic and religious instruction, the labour was designed to provide an avenue to reformation, as well as to improve the economic returns of a large and expensive settlement. Both imperial and colonial governments were preoccupied with making Port Arthur self-sustaining. The governance of JH Boyd (1853–71) saw the station reach its maximum operational and geographic extent, as agriculture and timber harvesting increased. The station's workshops housed blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, basketmakers, carpenters and stonemasons.
Changes in English penology had seen the 1842 completion of Pentonville Prison. This marked a shift in the treatment of refractory convicts as emphasis moved from punishment and reform through physical subjugation, to psychological control. This was reflected at Port Arthur in the 1848 cessation of flogging and the construction of the Separate Prison in 1850.
With the end of transportation in 1853, the number of convicts at Port Arthur began to decline. From a high of 1200 during 1846, the 1870s population lingered at around 500. The construction of the Paupers' Barracks and the Asylum in the 1860s reflected an ageing convict population. Unable to engage in productive labor, the convicts of Port Arthur were gradually removed, the process being completed in 1877.
Comments (7)
DukeNukem2005
It is very good!
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God bless.
Buffalo1
A superb photo and history. Dickens could have written a book on this penal colony.
blinkings
LOL he did. Fagin was based on one of Port Arthur's inmates.
X-PaX
Very nice capture. Well done.
FredNunes
GREAT PHOTO
Faemike55
a book was written, entitled 'for the term of his natural life, dealing with the prison system in Hobart. very stark reading.
great picture
Richardphotos
we have a Port Arthur here in Texas. very interesting for me to see and a great capture