Port Arthur Historic Site - Sunday Nov 22

Another cloudy cool start to the day with a bit of rain. Today Jean did her own thing, while I took a GrayLine Tour down to Port Arthur where over 12,500 convicts were held from about 1830 to 1877. The structures are brick, built by the convicts and many are mostly intact so its quite worth the day to see. They were treated quite brutally here, and were used to build up many industries such as timber, shipbuilding, brick and nail production, coalmining etc. Many of them learned trades and on good behavior actually excelled. I did the self-guided tour with my own headset and audio piece. I enjoyed this because the guided tours had masses of people and I could go where I wanted. My tour included lunch and a cruise and guided tour to the Isle of the Dead - a tiny island used as the cemetary. Of course the convicts were buried in unmarked graves at the bottom of the island and the free/military types buried at the top with massive headstones. It was a full day and well worth the effort to see. Torrential rainfall this afternoon all the way back to Hobart.