The Penitentiary is the face of Port Arthur. When you ever google it, you will see it is part of the logo. When you walk in this is the building you notice before you see anything else at the site. Its quite a stunning building, as it originally was a flour mill but then converted into a four story Penitentiary due to is failure to supply adequate flour for the settlement.
The two lower flours contained 136 cells for prisoners of 'bad character'.
The top floor provided spaced for 480 better behaved convicts to sleep in bunks.
The very large inductrial area near the penitentiary (the one E and I are standing with the building behind us) included workshops where prisoners worked and trained in a range of skills. Sadly there is no longer any visible evidence above the ground.
Over all I quite enjoyed the visit at Port Arthur, would go back again and again and again.
No comments:
Post a Comment