The port of Port Arthur

Port Arthur in Tasmania was built as a prison colony for particularly dangerous criminals in 1830. There is not a single known case of a successful escape from the peninsula, which is connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land. Until 1877, Port Arthur held more than 12,500 inmates, including children and juveniles. Today, visitors can take a tour of the ruins and the 'island of the dead', the prison graveyard. The museum has various items from daily prison life on display, e.g. the chains that bound the prisons. The two-hour ghost tour by torchlight is particularly creepy. Not far from Port Arthur Historic Site is 'Bush Mill', a reconstructed pioneer settlement of the turn of the 20th century with a railway track and an old sawmill.