Celebrate the recent World Heritage listing of the Australian Convict Sites by getting out and about with the family to explore Australia’s convict origins with this special offer from the Port Arthur Historic Site.
All visitors who purchase a daytime entry pass to the Port Arthur Historic Site this September will be offered an upgrade to a Ticket of Leave pass. The Ticket of Leave pass provides the holder with free return entry to the Port Arthur site for two whole years, making it easy to visit and really explore this amazing place.
It’s a great option for families, making visiting Port Arthur affordable, as well as for those who love to bring visiting family and friends when they come to stay.
To take advantage of this great offer, simply visit the Port Arthur Historic Site during this September and purchase any daytime entry pass (Bronze, Silver or Gold Pass – see our Book Now page for details), and mention this offer to the operator.
The popular Family Activity program Port Arthur Historic Site will be offered during the September school holidays, Saturday 4th September – Sunday 19th September.
The activities will take place in and around the Accountant’s House (Education Centre), near the Church.
Join us to find out how convicts made the bricks of Port Arthur, or how people entertained themselves by making a Fantascope, a very early form of animation, or create your own Clothes Peg Doll.
Activities
Convict Brick Making
As you walk around Port Arthur you may notice the bricks are in different states of decay and are different colours. There are reasons for this. Find out what these are and discover how they were made. Make a mini brick to take home!
Peg Doll Making
A quick look at entertainment for the young in the 1800’s. A child in the 1800s had to learn to entertain themselves with what was available. Students learn about costume and toys for children in the 1800’s. Make your own doll to take home!
Fantascopes
In 1830, before television, computers and hand – held game machines, the Fantascope was invented. See how people entertained themselves at home in the 1800’s and create your own to take home!
How to participate
There will be two sessions daily; 10:30am – 11:30 and 12:30pm – 1:30pm
The activities are included in the cost of Site entry. Advance bookings are not required; just turn up a few minutes prior to the starting time and be prepared to learn a little and have fun! Parents must accompany children please.
World Heritage Listing for Australia’s Convict Sites
02/08/2010
Eleven sites that combine to tell the epic story of Australia’s convict heritage have been inscribed on the World Heritage Register.
Federal Minister for Environment Protection and Heritage, Peter Garrett, and Tasmanian Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, David O’Byrne have welcomed the addition of 11 convict sites across Australia to the World Heritage List.
Five of the 11 convict sites in the World Heritage listing are located in Tasmania. They include:
The Cascades Female Factory, in Hobart – a self-contained, purpose-built institution intended to reform female convicts. The inmates did laundry and needlework services, offsetting some of the colony’s penal costs.
The Port Arthur Historic Site – operated as a penal station for secondary offenders until 1877, and developed into a major industrial complex.
The Coal Mines Historic Site – located on the north side of the Tasman peninsula, played an important role in the development of the colony, and held up to 500 convicts. It was regarded as a particularly severe place of punishment.
Brickendon and Woolmers Estates – located near Longford, were private farms that utilised assigned convicts, both male and female, who worked largely in agricultural jobs and contributed to the development of Tasmania’s pastoral industry.
Darlington Probation Station – located on Maria Island off Tasmania’s East Coast, where there are some 16 surviving sites dating in some cases to the 1820s.
(For technical reasons, Woolmers and Brickendon Estates are counted as a single site within the listing.)
“Australia is a relatively new country in terms of its European history. However, our early history coincided with one of the great historical phenomena, penal migration. This is reflected in the pre-eminence of our convict sites and their worldwide relevance and interest,” Peter Garrett said.
Mr O’Byrne said obtaining World Heritage recognition of Australia’s convict past is a significant milestone.
“Forced penal migration had a particular impact on Tasmania because of its sheer scale in relation to the general population. It’s not surprising that nearly half of the listed sites are in this State,” David O’Byrne said.
“This is a major part of the Tasmanian story.
“I’m quite proud to own up to some convict ancestry – my family is descended from four brothers, the O’Byrnes, who were convicted in Ireland and transported. Three of them survived the crossing and came to Tasmania, and went on to become free settlers. Many Tasmanians share similar stories.
“I think most people find it fascinating to look back in time and connect with their ancestors, even visit the actual places where they lived and worked.
“We are at a particular point in time, not just here but right around the world, where people can acknowledge convict heritage and feel comfortable to explore that heritage.
“Regardless of ancestry, we can all get a sense of perspective of the past by visiting Port Arthur, the Female Factory and Coal Mines in the south of the State or Woolmers and Brickendon in the North, even Darlington on Maria Island.
“Visiting the actual places gives us tremendous insight into the lives and conditions that convicts endured and how they came through that adversity.”
Both Ministers said the World Heritage nomination was a thorough process, and involved considerable cooperation and liaison between Federal, State, Territory and local Governments.
“The listing reflects well on Australia’s commitment at every level to conserving our heritage,” said Peter Garrett.
“A strong case had to be made to convince the World Heritage Committee that inclusion on the prestigious World Heritage List would hold relevance beyond Australia and for the world.”
Mr O’Byrne credited communities around the sites with helping enable the listings, which are expected to generate environmental, social and economic benefits for Tasmania.
The other sites that make up Australia’s 18th World Heritage listing are:
Old Government House and Domain, Hyde Park Barracks, Cockatoo Island Convict Site and Old Great North Road in New South Wales.
Fremantle Prison in Western Australia.
Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area in Norfolk Island.
The 11 sites are also included on the National Heritage List and are protected under national environment law.
Further details on the listing are available from UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre website
Heritage Minister David O’Byrne discusses the inscription with local media at the Cascade Female Factory
It’s enough to make any old lag feel warm and fuzzy all over.
Some of Australia’s most important convict sites have been added to the United Nations’ world heritage list, alongside such natural icons as the Great Barrier Reef.
Environment Protection and Heritage Minister Peter Garrett on Sunday welcomed the world heritage committee’s decision to inscribe 11 local convict sites on the list, helping to ensure their preservation into the future.
The sites include Old Government House, the Domain, Hyde Park Barracks, Cockatoo Island and Old Great North Road in NSW, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia, and Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area on Norfolk Island.
Tasmania’s Port Arthur, Brickendon and Woolmers Estates, Darlington Probation Station, Coal Mines Historic Site and the Cascades Female Factory are also on the list.
Mr Garrett also announced that the federal government would transfer eastern Sydney’s Malabar Headland to the NSW state government for conservation.
About 70 hectares of additional national park and conservation reserve will be created as a result of the decision.
Mr Garrett said the government would move to transfer the north-western edge of the headland as soon as possible.
The eastern edge of the headland will be transferred when further investigations are complete.
Point Puer from the Isle of the Dead, photographed in 1880 (AOT, PH30/1/1203)
Point Puer operated from 1834 to 1848 on the Tasman Peninsula, the first British purpose-built reforming institution for criminal boys. It predated Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight by four years and was initiated by Lt-Governor Arthur at a time when children were being seen in their own terms, rather than as small adults. The objective of making constructive colonial citizens out of transported teenagers was to be achieved by separation from adult convicts, with education, trade training and religious instruction being the vehicles to change immoral habits.
Point Puer peninsula and buildings can be seen in the background in this sketch by N Remand, ‘Etablissement penitentiare de Port Arthur’ (ALMFA, SLT)
A combination of management and resourcing issues, together with the defiant culture of many boys, resulted in the establishment producing mixed results. While some boys continued to offend as adults, others used their trades and pursued honest and successful lives. (See also Port Arthur.)
Further reading: P MacFie & N Hargraves, ‘The empire’s first stolen generation’, THS 6/2, 1999.
Nigel Hargraves
Copyright 2006, Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies
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 labour, the convicts of Port Arthur were gradually removed, the process being completed in 1877.
Port Arthur guards, 1866 (ALMFA, SLT)
Subdivision and auctions saw most of the establishment sold into private ownership in the 1880s. Many buildings were demolished, bushfires in 1895 and 1897 furthering the destruction. Buildings that survived were used for private residences, or accommodation for the emerging tourist trade. The Separate Prison, Penitentiary and Church ruins were retained largely due to their picturesque appeal. A number of ruins were reserved in 1916 and placed under the control of the Scenery Preservation Board, becoming the first ‘historic sites’ in Australia. In 1971 the precinct was declared the Port Arthur Historic Site and is currently managed by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority.
Further reading: I Brand, Port Arthur 1830–1877, Tasmania, 1975; R Hughes, The fatal shore, London, 1987; D Young, Making crime pay, Hobart, 1996.
Richard Tuffin
Copyright 2006, Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies
Join a lantern-lit walking tour to experience the Port Arthur Historic Site by night. Port Arthur can seem a very different place after sunset, full of mystery and intrigue.
Are there ghosts? Truth or myth? Either way, the silence and soft glow of the lantern light can sometimes make those long gone seem very close at hand.
Some stories last more than a lifetime
Darkness falls and a hidden side of historic Port Arthur emerges. This is a different place after sunset, full of mystery and intrigue. Flickering lantern light draws you close to hear tales from long ago.
Rich storytelling and pathways through darkened ruins and heritage buildings reveal bizarre occurrences during Port Arthur’s history, baffling and alarming convicts, free settlers, soldiers and today’s visitors alike.
Listen to first hand accounts of prisoners and soldiers that will resonate in your mind long after the lantern dims at the end of the night.Real people’s stories.
Black-cloaked tour guides vividly recount real people’s documented stories of sightings and unexplained occurrences of the past.180 years of stories.
With its sometimes violent, sometimes cruel European history dating back to 1830, Port Arthur is a unique place where spine tingling tales make a memorable impression.One of Australia’s most haunted sites.
Almost two centuries of documented sightings and reports of paranormal activity make Port Arthur’s after dark atmosphere intense. Truth or myth? Either way, the silence and soft glow of the lantern can make those long-gone seem very close at hand.The original and still the best.
After sharing the hidden side of the convict settlement for more than 20 years, Port Arthur remains Australia’s “must do” ghost tour experience.Visitors to Port Arthur experience our Historic Ghost Tour.
Port Arthur Ghost Tours operate every evening except Christmas Day.
The Isle of the Dead is a located in the harbour off Port Arthur. Between 1833 and 1877, around one thousand burials took place there.
Take the Harbour Cruise and join a guided walking tour of this small island to gain a fascinating insight into the lives of the people who lived and died at Port Arthur.
The tour departs several times daily except Christmas Day. Contact the Visitor Centre for times—1800 659 101
This is an optional tour, requiring an additional ticket. Tickets can be purchased as part of an Experience Pass via our on-line booking system, at our Visitor Centre or from onboard the harbour cruise.
Our tours to the Isle of the Dead and Point Puer Boys Prison are not recommended for those with mobility restrictions. Please refer to our Disabled access and facilities page for further information.
Archaeology in Antarctica: Working on the Mawson’s Huts Historic Site Conservation Expedition 2009-2010 presented by Dr Jody Steele
Mawson’s Huts Historic Site is located at Cape Denison, George V Land in the Australian Antarctic Territory. The site is host to a suite of historic buildings, structures and artefacts associated with the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14 led by Douglas Mawson.
Since the mid 1970s conservation teams have been heading south to the icy land in an attempt to preserve this highly significant heritage site. In the summer of 2009-10, an expert team returned to the site, with the aim of carrying out further conservation work. This talk will showcase the archaeological component of the expedition and will include tales of blizzards, dining on the Sea Shepherd and the joys of living on the ice for a summer.
Jody Steele has a PhD in Archaeology and for the last five years has been working as the Historic Heritage Consultant for the Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania. She is on the Executive Committee of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology as Vice President serves on the Tasmanian Heritage Council’s Archaeological Advisory Panel and on the Wildcare Tasmania Board.
In December-January 2009/10 was the Expedition Archaeologist for the Mawson’s Huts Foundation. Jody’s main research interest is in the sub-discipline of Public Archaeology.
She has spent considerable time during the last 11 years educating the public towards the techniques, exciting and not so exciting finds of archaeological excavations around the country including the Port Arthur Public Archaeology Program 2002-2008. Jody again works for PAHSMA this time not primarily as an archaeologist but as the new Heritage Programs Manager.
ALL WELCOME
Thursday 15 July, 2010, 5.30pm at the Junior Medical Officer’s Conference Room, Port Arthur Historic Site
For more information call 6251 2324
Port Arthur Talk leaflet – Jody Steele
Wednesday 17 November, 2010
Trade trails: the convict cabinetmakers transported to Van Diemen’s Land during the Assignment era, 1804-1839 presented by Robyn Lake
Through the stories of some of these cabinetmakers, this talk explores both the changing circumstances under which skilled convicts assigned to government service served their sentences, and what access colonists had to this valuable resource.
Robyn and her husband Denis Lake’s extensive research into Tasmania’s furniture history covers the manufacture, importation, sale and use of furniture up until 1930. Robyn’s current research is centred on documenting the contribution of the more than 500 convicts with furniture trade related skills who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land during the first 50 years of European settlement
ALL WELCOME
Wednesday 17 November 2010, 5.30pm at the Junior Medical Officer’s Conference Room, Port Arthur Historic Site
The Port Arthur Historic Site has been honoured with one of Australia’s leading awards, for the third year in succession.
The Site was named Australian Gourmet Traveller Magazine’s Best Heritage Experience at a ceremony in Sydney last night.
In its citation, the magazine noted that Port Arthur’s history was “treated with respect and gravity by guides and by fixed displays that don’t shy away from telling the chilling truths about the site’s history”.
Port Arthur has an extraordinary history, and its successful combination of heritage conservation with delivering a compelling tourism experience stories bring its history alive for more than a quarter of a million visitors every year, making it a major driver of tourism and economic activity in the region and the state.
An economic impact study in 2009 estimated that the Authority’s annual contribution to Gross State Product to be almost $31million.
The Port Arthur and Coal Mines Historic Sites are both managed by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, and both are significant components of the Australian Convict Sites nomination for World Heritage status.
The Coal Mines Historic Site was Tasmania’s first operational mine, established as a much-needed local source of coal, but also as a place of punishment for the ‘worst class’ of convicts.
History
Coal was first discovered at the Site in 1833 and a team of convict labourers was quickly dispatched to begin extracting it. The first shipment left the mine the following year, and the mine was in continuous use for the next 40 years, producing around 60 000 tonnes of coal over its life.
Management
This important convict site is also managed by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority and is another compelling chapter in the story of Tasmania’s convict history.
The entrance to the Coal Mines Historic Site
How to Get There
The Coal Mines Historic Site is 25 minutes’ drive from Port Arthur, near Saltwater River on the north western tip of the Tasman Peninsula.
From Hobart—Travel down the Arthur Highway to the Tasman Peninsula; turn right at Taranna onto the B37. At the Premaydena shop, turn right and take road C341 for approximately 13 kilometres/8 miles. The road is sealed up until the entrance to the Coal Mines Historic Site.
From Port Arthur—Travel north along the Arthur Highway to Taranna; turn left onto the B37, then continue as above. Alternatively, continue past Port Arthur to Nubeena and Premaydena, then turn left onto the C341 at the Premaydena shop and continue as above.
Experience
The Coal Mines Historic Site is a great place to discover on foot. Learn the history of this place as you walk the paths and tracks and around the Site and read the stories of some of some of the people who lived and worked here. Explore the settlement ruins which once included stone prisoners’ barracks and punishment cells, a chapel, bakehouse and store as well as quarters for the commanding officer, surgeon and soldiers.
A printed guide to the Coal Mines is available at the Port Arthur Historic Site Visitor Centre.
Walk options range from a few minutes to several hours. Visit the Short Walks website for more information.
Entry and Facilities
The Coal Mines Historic Site is open daily. No bookings are required and entry is free. There are toilet facilities at the Site, but it is not staffed.
It is unclear when the brick works and pottery at Opossum Bay began operations but it is known that
by May1831 activity had commenced as the southern limit of the settlement at Port Arthur was
described as, “The Rocky Point near the kilns in Opossum Bay” (CSO1/551/12027). In October 1831
William Barton is listed as the first brick maker at Port Arthur (CS01/511/11180). From earlier
government correspondence it is known that William Barton had previous experience in the pottery
industry and in 1828 applied to be placed in charge of the Government Pottery on Maria Island (CSO
1/76/1685/167).
In the buildings survey of the Tasman Peninsula conducted by Henry Laing in 1836 two structures are
depicted at Opossum Bay; a substantial brick kiln and a large drying shed. The kiln is shown as
measuring 28 feet x 12 feet internally and was enclosed by walls 2 feet thick at the base (tapering to 18
inches at the top). The drying shed is shown as 100 feet in length by 25 feet wide and was open on all
sides. No other kilns or structures are depicted for the site, so if any pottery was being produced in
this period it must have been fired in the brick kiln. From 1837 onwards architectural ceramics such as
flat tiles, gutter tiles and paving tiles are listed as exports from the site (CS05/178/7230).
The kiln depicted by Laing at Brick
Point is a typical Scotch kiln, an intermittent
updraft type that was common in the UK
during the period. A kiln of the dimensions
depicted would take about a week to complete
a cycle (load, burn, cool and unload), and
contain up to 40,000 bricks, depending on the
skill of the stacker. It was common practice to
only use the kiln once per month.
Brick drying shed at Brick Point depicted by Laing
It is believed that domestic pottery ware was being produced at Opossum Bay by 1840, as flower pots
are mentioned in the Port Arthur returns for that year (CSO49/8). In 1842 David Burns visited Port
Arthur and published an account of his excursion. He stated that, “There is a factory hitherto
overlooked, where bricks, tiles, gutter tiles, flower pots and other similar articles are manufactured.
From the excellence of the clay, the commodities are of the most superior quality, so much so that the
use of a pug‐mill and a careful selection of material might prove the means of creating a pottery of
infinite value, whence a ware little inferior to Wedgwood might be produced” (Burn, 1972). The
absence of a pug‐mill, would mean that any material manufactured in this period would have had
large inclusions and other impurities and therefore would be unlikely to be glazed.
Returns for 1841 indicate 962,000 bricks, as well as 15,500 gutter tiles, 1200 paving tiles and 474 flower
pots were produced by an average of 26 brickmakers. This equates to approximately 140 bricks plus a
couple of drain tiles per man per day, or about 500‐700 bricks per moulding stool – as the men would
work in teams. This may be compared with upwards of 3000 bricks per stool per day within a typical
UK brickworks of the period.
Some time between 1842 and 1846 the brickworks was relocated to what become known as Brick Field
Hill near the northern entrance to the Port Arthur Historic Site (MM62/17 A1107 File 5898). It is not
known if the pottery works also moved to the new site. Records, or rather the lack of them suggest
that pottery‐making was neglected for a time, as in the visitors book dated March 1856 one J.L Rogers
commented “I cannot but notice the value of the Pottery works, and at the same time, express my
regret that they should lately have been in some degree discontinued; I think they might be most
usefully extended” (C0280/741/335). A subsequent review of industries that could be established or
extended that was undertaken by Boyd the following July mentions ‘pottery‐ware’.
It is thought that the pottery was improved and extended in the period 1857‐1858, as the returns for
the year ending June 1858 record that 340 glazed cell pans were manufactured as well as 270 flower
pots and 170 insulators (C0280/746/341). This is the first mention of glazed material being produced at
the pottery for which a pug‐mill most likely would have been required. The same return records the
production of 183,000 bricks in 2200 convict days. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s annual returns
report the production of between 100,200‐200,000 bricks per annum, sufficient for only half a dozen or
so kiln firings.
Some time around 1867 brickmaking appears to have been discontinued at Brick Field Hill, and
recommenced at Opossum Bay. (The shed at Brick Field Hill collapsed in August of that year and the
Commandant wrote a terse note to George Eastman to ask him to stop his children cutting it up for
firewood ‐ Tas Papers 315, 11/9/1867) Bricks, tiles and pottery goods thereafter appear sporadically in
station returns until the early 1870’s. In March 1870 the Mercury reported “About three‐quarters of a
mile further off are the Brickfields and pottery, where excellent bricks are made for the erection of
buildings and some exceedingly pretty pottery has been turned out. We saw a large quantity of
flower‐pots intended for Government‐house, which were equal to any made in the Colony. Milk
dishes and other articles are manufactured here” (Mercury 25/3/1870).
It is not known when the pottery (and brickworks) at Opossum Bay ceased operating, but given the
extent of recycling taking place during the final years of the station’s life it is likely that the brickworks
if not the pottery was closed well before 1877. Photographs attributed to E.R Pretyman dated c1880s of
a pottery kiln at Opossum Bay shows the structure in significant disrepair.
It would be another decade or more after the closure of the penal station that pottery making returned
to Port Arthur. In 1886 James Price, who had arrived from the United Kingdom in 1884, brought three
lots on Peel Street, Brick Field Hill, totalling 3 acres 12 perches. It is unclear what remained of the
convict works by this time and whether James Price scavenged material to build his own kilns (one of
which survives), and whether he re‐occupied the site of the earlier convict works. James Price died at
Port Arthur in 1912 and during his time at Port Arthur produced mainly decorative terracotta and
other unglazed as well as glazed types of earthenware.
Archaeology
An archaeological investigation of Brick Point has been on the drawing board for some time, but was
given impetus following PAHSMA’s receipt of a proposal from an external researcher (La Trobe
University archaeology PhD student Anthony Bagshaw) who wished to study evidence of early
pottery manufacture in Australia. As we didn’t have any examples of definite convict‐made pottery
within the existing collection we decided to carry out some test excavations at Brick Point (and Brick
Field Hill) with a view to identifying what sites might exist on PAHSMA managed land and to
recover examples of convict‐made pottery for comparative analysis.
As we didn’t have much information about the site we had to complete a topographic survey of the
site in preparation for a more detailed geophysical survey to help pinpoint possible targets for
excavation.
An opportunity to carry out this work arose as a result of a fire that burned the north side of Brick
Point in Spring 2008. Further clearing was done manually in November 2008 by CVA volunteers,
which exposed the site’s major remaining structural feature. The area was mapped topographically in
December and selectively gridded and geophysically surveyed using a magnetometer in December
and January.
Excavation of a test trench over the magnetic anomaly revealed the existence of a brick paved floor,
surrounded by a deep cutting corresponding to the footing trench for the 1836 depicted kiln. The
subsoil beneath the brick floor was baked, indicating the application of considerable heating and
providing the source of the magnetic anomaly.
Anecdotal information indicates that bricks were taken from this area during the 1930s to build a pair
of lime kilns further south adjacent to Safety Cove Road. The remaining trenches represent the
robbed‐out foundations of the original convict brick kiln.
To the north of the brick kiln, a semi‐circular depression was also investigated by test trenching. This
feature was located within a scatter of locally made pottery sherds. The sherds indicate that a range of
pottery wares were being produced, variously with plain finish, glazed, or impressed/incised
decoration. Forms include flowerpots, open and lidded storage containers, and larger open pans.
The depression was heavily disturbed by tree growth and
bank collapse, however it was initially thought that it may
be the site of a dedicated pottery kiln; a separate structure
built c.1840 and photographed c1880. Subsequent excavatio
revealed that while that site demonstrated convict landbuilding
activities, possibly to create a level space for the
pottery to operate, the surface depression was unrelated to
the pottery works.
Excavation of Trench 2 over a pronounced circular
depression, revealed convict-era brick dumps and
land-levelling activities. The depression was
determined to be the result of a later disturbance,
unrelated to the pottery.
The circular structure depicted in the c.1880
photograph taken at Brick Point is a Staffordshire-type
bottle kiln, although without the distinctive external
bottle-shaped hovel. The kiln is updraft, with at least
three, but almost certainly more, fire mouths. These
appear to have been modified, possibly to facilitate the
use of wood as fuel.
Port Arthur Pottery Project Investigation Summary January 2010
The Port Arthur region of Tasmania Australia is one of a few worthwhile areas to visit on the Tasman Peninsula.
Port Arthur is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful harbors in Australia with its beautiful scenery along the coast as well as on the ground. Its in this area 60 kilometers south of Hobart and is home to the historic penal colony, which is also referred to as Port Arthur. Identified as a harsh place to be imprisoned, Port Arthur had a natural security system with shark contaminated waters on three sides of the facility.
At the moment Port Arthur is probably the the majority favored tourist destination of Tasmania. Visitors will see the remains of the prison buildings equally well as a museum with fascinating artifacts and stories of ghosts haunting the region. If ghost siteings concern you, there are nighttime ghost tours that you possibly will want to check out. Another very popular place to visit is The Island of the Dead, where visitors learn of 1,646 graves of prisoners & prison employees who died in the Port Arthur prison camps.
There are also plenty of less grim things to see and do in the Port Arthur area, including a visit to Tasman National Park, see the sea cliffs and amazing formations along the coast, fishing at Eaglehawk Neck, kayaking along the coast, and soaking up the serenity of the area farming communities.
Clearly, Port Arthur is a place of many contrasts and its worth staying here for a few days to experience all that the area has to offer. There are many options for accommodation in Port Arthur, but probably the best way to enjoy your stay to its fullest is to stay in one of the many self-contained lodging options. This type of accommodation typically provides kitchen facilities, living space that is separate from the sleeping space, and many also have private gardens or other outdoor areas where you can relax and enjoy the surroundings.
Self-contained accommodations offer a great way to more fully enjoy the area because youll have the opportunity to settle in and relax as if you were at home. Theres more privacy than youll find in the typical hotel accommodations, and youll be able to enjoy the option of cooking and eating in, or trying one of the areas restaurants. In addition to a kitchen, most self-contained lodging options provide all the amenities you need to feel completely at home.
