3-4/5/03
TASMAN PENNISULA, TASMANIA
I wanted to got to Port Arthur
and see the most reknowned penal colony in Australia.
We drove out and stayed at a little 5-bed hostel in Eaglehawk Neck
-
the guy who ran the place was a real trip.
He kept rattling on for 15 minutes about all the stuff we could
do.
We could have spent a week on the Tasman Penninsula alone,
but we only had 2 days.
The Eaglehawk Cafe was awesome -
we had dinner AND breakfast there.
It was run out of a big old house by an immigrated French woman
and our cute petite waitress looked like Ani Difranco
(except she was Australian...and pregnant).
Port Arthur was
really eerie.
They let you walk right up and into all the buildings,
which was really cool but spooky at the same time.
we were walking right into some of the old cells.
we went on a ghost tour - guided by lanterns in the dark.
It was really freaking us out
(me and a few others in our group heard some noises
that had no
explanation).
The exhibits explaining the convict experience were really set up
well.
They give you a card and you follow the life of a convict from
when he was sent to Australia for some petty crime
(public drunkeness, idleness, shoplifting -
could all lead to a
minimum of 7 years in Australia)
to his repeat offense which landed him at Port Arthur.
Port Arthur was the jail for the repeat offenders -
the prisoners' prison, sort of speak.
There was also a reflection pool and memorial
to the 35 people who
died in 1996,
when a crazed gunman mass murdered
visitors and staff when he opened
fire
in a cafe at the national historic site.
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Remarkable Cave
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overlook in Eagleneck
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Port Arthur
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on the grounds
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in the penitentiary
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breaking out
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the old ball and chains
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