The Port Arthur historic site, a former convict settlement, is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and Tasmania's top tourist attraction.
The World Heritage-listed Port Arthur Historic Site on the Tasman Peninsula is Australia's most intact and evocative convict site, and an essential destination on any tour of Tasmania. The Historic Site has over 30 buildings, ruins and restored period homes set in 40 hectares of landscaped grounds. Allow plenty of time to fully experience all that Port Arthur has to offer.
The World Heritage-listed Port Arthur Historic Site on the Tasman Peninsula is Australia's most intact and evocative convict site, and an essential destination on any tour of Tasmania.
From 1833 to 1853 Port Arthur was maintained by the British Empire as a penal colony for the hardest of British and Irish criminals and other offenders, where they were kept under control by some of the strictest security measures of the British penal system.
Located on a peninsula, surrounded by shark infested waters (according to prison administration), and only a 30 metre wide access to the mainland that was a guarded by soldiers, mantraps and starving dogs, Port Arthur was advertised as an inescapable prison. Around 12,500 convicts passed through the colony and it is rumored some committed murder there purely to receive the death penalty and escape from what was essentially 'a living hell'.
Port Arthur was advertised as an inescapable prison.
The 40 ha site of landscaped grounds houses Australia's most intact convict settlement, including restored buildings and homes, ruins, a harbor, a coalmine, a factory and even an Isle of the Dead. Enjoy one of the guided tours and cruises or explore this vast and unsettling remembrance of days gone past at your own pace. With a museum, interactive experiences and a bistro serving fresh Tasmanian produce, a trip to the Port Arthur Historic site is one trip you will remember.
A Haunted History - Ghost Tours
Documented ghost stories have been associated with Port Arthur since 1870, when the prison was still in operation. Since that time the site has had a rich history of paranormal encounters – from visitors, staff and contractors.
Over 1000 people died at Port Arthur throughout its 47 year history, others, like convict William Riley, were taken to Hobart Town for execution. There are those who say the sad souls of the departed remain at the prison, and many visitors and staff have claimed to witness strange events at the Site.
The Port Arthur Ghost Tour is one of Australia's best known, and most spine-tingling, experiences, a must-do when visiting southern Tasmania. Join our guides for a lamp lit tour of the Historic Site by night as they relate stories of strange and mysterious occurrences from throughout the Site's European history.
If you visit, why not join a lantern-lit tour with an experienced guide, who will vividly recount real people’s documented stories of sightings and unexplained occurrences of the past. Engaging storytelling reveals strange unexplained occurrences during Port Arthur’s history, events that baffled and alarmed convicts, free settlers, soldiers and today’s visitors alike.
The Port Arthur Massacre
The Port Arthur massacre of 28–29 April 1996 was a massacre in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Australian history, and amongst the most notable in history.
Martin Bryant entered a café at the site of a historic penal colony at Port Arthur, Tasmania.
The 28-year-old ate lunch before pulling a semi-automatic rifle from his bag and embarking on a killing spree. By the time he was apprehended the next morning, 35 people were dead and 23 had been wounded. Bryant had become the worst mass-murderer in Australia’s history.
Gunman Martin Bryant on April 25, 1996, just three days before the Port Arthur massacre where he shot and killed 35 people and injured another 19.
A witness to the atrocity, Lynne Beavis, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“There were people everywhere — bodies,” "It’s just so indescribable what had happened in there."
She added:
“I thought at the time, being a nurse, ‘I’ve seen dead people, I’ve seen blood, I’ve seen things like this.’ But what I saw in there, nobody but perhaps a soldier would know what it was like.”
Martin Bryant, a 28-year-old from New Town, a suburb of Hobart, was found guilty of the shootings and given 35 life sentences without possibility of parole. Following the incident, it emerged in the media that Bryant had significant intellectual disabilities. He is now imprisoned in the Wilfred Lopes Center, near the Risdon Prison Complex.
Following the spree, the then Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, introduced strict gun control laws within Australia and formulated the National Firearms Programme Implementation Act 1996, restricting the private ownership of high capacity semi-automatic rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns as well as introducing uniform firearms licensing. It was implemented with bipartisan support by the Commonwealth, states and territories.
A pile of about 4,500 firearms that were handed over as part of Australia's buyback. - David Gray / Reuters
Port Arthur Memorial Garden
Those who visit the site now can pay their respects by visiting the memorial garden...
A garden with a pond commemorates the victims of Australia’s worst mass murder
The following is a list of those killed in the Port Arthur massacre
Winifred Joyce Aplin, 58
Walter John Bennett, 66
Nicole Louise Burgess, 17
Sou Leng Chung, 32
Elva Rhonda Gaylard, 48
Zoe Anne Hall, 28
Elizabeth Jayne Howard, 26
Mary Elizabeth Howard, 57
Mervyn John Howard, 55
Ronald Noel Jary, 71
Tony Vadivelu Kistan, 51
Leslie Dennis Lever, 53
Sarah Kate Loughton, 15
David Martin, 72
Noelene Joyce Martin, 69
Pauline Virjeana Masters, 49
Alannah Louise Mikac, 6
Madeline Grace Mikac, 3
Nanette Patricia Mikac, 36
Andrew Bruce Mills, 49
Peter Brenton Nash, 32
Gwenda Joan Neander, 67
Moh Yee Willing Ng, 48
Anthony Nightingale, 44
Mary Rose Nixon, 60
Glen Roy Pears, 35
Russell James Pollard, 72
Janette Kathleen Quin, 50
Helene Maria Salzmann, 50
Robert Graham Salzmann, 58
Kate Elizabeth Scott, 21
Kevin Vincent Sharp, 68
Raymond John Sharp, 67
Royce William Thompson, 59
Jason Bernard Winter, 29
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur,_Tasmania
http://portarthur.org.au/activities/port-arthur-ghost-tour/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(Australia)
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