Tasmania: Port Arthur and Devils

Did you know...that from 1618-1775 British felons under commuted death sentences were sent to American (Virginia) colonies as indentured labour -- average 700 prisoners per year. After the loss of the American Colonies in 1776, Britain needed to find another place to take the population of their overcrowded prisons (full mainly due to the unemployment created by the Industrial Revolution). Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent botanist who had accompanied Captain James Cook on his 1770 voyage, recommended Botany Bay (in AU) as a suitable site. Seventeen years later, the First Fleet of 11 ships and about 1350 convicts and guards set sail for Botany Bay. On arrival, Botany Bay was considered unsuitable and on January 26, 1788—a date now celebrated as Australia Day—a landing was made at the nearby Sydney Cove. Several years later, in the 1830’s the peninsula of Port Arthur in Van Diemen's Land (later named Tasmania) was built with prison labor for hardened prisoners. Religious instruction and isolation were among the methods used in attempted reform. Even in church there was isolation, as each prisoner filed into individual partitions where they would stand and the only person they could see was the minister. The landscape at Port Arthur is beautiful and serene now—hard to believe this soil was once stained with convict blood—some of whom may just have been on a walkabout and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If you had to finish this phrase, “Tasmanian…”, most of you would say, “devil.” What vicious little marsupials these are! After hearing their haunting cry pierce the night and seeing them fight over a dead chicken, I’m sure the settlers of Van Diemen’s Land thought the devil truly was stalking the woods at night seeking whom he might devour. Since these little carnivores aren’t very fast on the ground nor do they climb, carrion is their main diet. They will eat something that has been dead for many days—fur, feathers, bones, claws and all. They can pulverize a bone that is 3” thick. As you can see in our picture, they often get in vicious fights with one another over “the last piece of chicken”. Many are brought into the wild animal hospitals with ears missing and terrible injuries. One was even missing its lower jaw. Here’s a great web site where you can actually hear the haunting howl of a T.D. and even view a short video clip. http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5358KH?open

(Note: if you would like to see these pictures enlarged, just left click on the picture. Also, in our previous blog, I meant to say “closer” and not “close” re the relationship between TAS and Antarctica--our apologies to all you geography buffs)