That was the mission of the Port Arthur penal settlement. We spent 3 hours there on Wednesday and 9 on Thursday – 7 during the day and 2 at night. We won’t try and tell you the history which most people know something of anyway.

Just a few of our thoughts on the whole experience:

It is an amazingly beautiful setting. Everyone says what a lovely piece of paradise, how could even convicts not like being here. To walk around the sheltered harbour, up the tree lined avenues, in the Government Gardens with the dozens of species of mature english trees, shrubs and flowers is a pleasure.

It is a very big site so even thousands of people get very dispersed and it doesn’t feel crowded.

There is a stark contrast between the grandness of the Commandant’s house and the solitary cells of the convicts.

The “live” theatre performances are excellent and create great atmosphere.

30+ buildings ranging from ruins to furnished houses.

The orientation walking tour was a good introduction to what Port Arthur was all about and its context.

Just enough interpretive material to keep you interested without information overload.

A good variety of stories told: the convicts, the civilians, the military,  the clergy, the children. Very little on the aborigine.

The stories told with respect and not with exploitation or sensationalism.

It was put in a larger context of penal reform (the change from physical punishment,  flogging, to psychological punishment, isolation), rebellions in Ireland and Canada, social attitudes in the 19th century, the class system, etc.

Being able to pick and eat the different types of apples in the orchard.

The boat trip was okay if you were going to Point Puer Boys’ Prison or the Isle of the Dead but otherwise not really necessary.

The realisation this was a huge operation. Not just a prison but a commercial operation of timber collecting, ship building, forgers, black smiths, white smiths, coopers, boot makers, clothes makers, flour mill etc, not just for the prison but for colonial Australia.

It was not just about punishment by hard labour but also rehabilitation through religious indoctrination, education and training in useful skills.

It is a work in progress with ongoing archaeological work and the restoration and conservation of buildings and infrastructure.

A first class interpretive centre.

The Ghost Tour was pitched at just about the right level. Atmosphere created by story telling and not kitsch effects or stunts. Just seeing the place at night by the light of a flickering lantern was good enough.

The story after the prison closed in 1877. The name change to Carnarvon, the fires, the sale and subdivision, the growth of the tourist trade.

Good food and clean toilets!!!!!!