Port Arthur (Tasmania) Travel Guide — Things to Do, Food & Hotels
small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia
About Port Arthur (Tasmania)
Port Arthur was established as a timber station in 1830, supporting the infant colony of Van Diemen's Land. It became the site of a major penal (prison) colony for male convicts from 1833, a place of secondary punishment for re-offenders, in the 19th-century era of convict transportation to Van Diemen's Land (the former name of Tasmania). It very quickly gained a reputation as a "hell on earth". At its peak in the late 1840s, Port Arthur became a near self-sufficient settlement, driven by the labour of its tormented inmates. After a couple of decades of decline in the 1850s and 1860s, Port Arthur ended its days as a penal settlement in 1877. Port Arthur was then a township and its named changed to Carnarvon in the 1880s. Land was parcelled up and put to auction while people were taking up
Top Attractions in Port Arthur (Tasmania)
Explore the best things to see and do in Port Arthur (Tasmania):
- ★Tasman Island Cruises
Where to Stay in Port Arthur (Tasmania)
- 🏨Port Arthur Motor Inn & Restaurant
Port Arthur (Tasmania) Travel Guide Sections
Our comprehensive guide covers 11 sections including: