On our last day in Tasmania we visited Port Arthur; an Australian Heritage site on the Tasman Peninsula. It was a British convict penitentiary, and there are only 11 remnants remaining in Australia of prisons. It's an open air museum that allows you to experience what it was like for men and boys as young as 9 to be imprisoned.
Playing cards are distributed upon entering so that you can follow the life of a prisoner. Parker was imprisoned for stealing shoes. Bummer. Everly got 7 years for stealing 21 umbrellas. The lives of the prisoners we followed via our playing cards were all real! The kids got kid profiles and we got adults.
Our view from the boat ride around the peninsula. The boat went past the small island where juvenile convicts were held - as young as 9 years old!
Walking through what is left of the small cells that housed them.
Restoration was in progress all over the grounds. Archaeologists were digging in the background and there were signs stating that it is common for tourists to find historical remains on the grounds. Of course you were asked to notify the museum if you happened to find any.
Some of the additional grounds. Port Arthur was a military settlement as well as a prison. A few thousand people lived, worked, or were imprisoned there as well as many children!
Quite beautiful for such a solemn place.
The kids actually enjoyed the history, and really wanted to know about "their" prisoners. We were only able to spend a few hours there before our evening flight back and we all wish we could have spent the entire day.
This was the hospital. When the prison surgeon was away, a prisoner who had just only begun medical stepped in to perform the necessary medical procedures and surgeries.
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