Last night started with Lach having to walk down to the ‘bogans’ to ask them to turn their music down. We have since learnt that a local term for ‘bogans’ is a ‘Chigger’, and that the locals around this area aren’t very friendly to travellers. They eventually turned their music off at 930pm, so we technically cant complain, however the sound of silence that we would expect in a national park wasn’t to be. This afternoon when we returned to the van after our day of adventures – once again the music was blaring. It is a beautiful spot here and would recommend it to anyone but outside holidays and away from weekends is the time to come – we hit the double whammy!

We set off this morning to visit the famous Port Arthur Historic Site, which is a place of national and international significance due to it being part of the epic story of the settlement of Australia. The Port Arthur penal station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp using convict labour to produce sawn logs for government projects, then from 1833 it was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all of the Australian colonies. People believe that the convicts came directly from England to Port Arthur, but in fact this isn’t true. Convicts from England came to other prisons in Australia, and if they were classed as repeat offender when on parol from their first Australian prison, they would then be sent to Port Arthur. The guide mentioned today that we should have no sympathy for these men and boys as they ‘chose’ to be here by continuing to be criminals. It was just men and boys sent here (as young as the age of 9), however the boys were separated so that the criminal men didn’t influence the young boys. The boys left the prison more educated that most boys of their age, as not only were they taught a craft, they were also taught the 3R’s including religion. In 1840 more than 2000 convicts, soldiers and staff lived at Port Arthur which was classed as a major industrial settlement – they made everything from worked stone and bricks to furniture and clothing, boots and ships – which was all shipped out direct from the Port. The punishments which the convicts received for disobeying or continuing crime ranged from the ‘cat with nine tails’ to solitary confinement which included no speaking (mouth bandaged) plus 23hours in total darkness with 1hour a day to walk around the exercise yard. This solitary could last up to 7 years, which led to insanity. The girls had trouble understanding that people were not allowed to talk and had their mouths bandaged. On the reverse, the prisoners were rewarded with tobacco rations or tea, salt and sugar for good behaviour.  Due to the prison site being so large and surrounded by sea, the convicts were shackled the entire time. If you were less ‘trouble’ then you had lighter shackles, but if you were a real trouble-maker, then you could even be double-shackled, which would mean you would be walking around carrying 13kg on each leg. There was one man that was double-shackled for 13 years.

I was glad to see that the visitor centre has been renovated since I last came (which used to be a very small shed/cafe/shop – with a wall in memory of the shooting in 1996 – however now there is just a single paragraph in a pamphlet). The centre is now very sophisticated, and reminded me slightly of the Anzac museum in Albany. We were all handed a card to then go and find in the museum to read some statistics of the convicts, and the girls could try on the shackles and try to walk around. Audrey could hardly move. There was also a section on the Conivcts Curse, like Tootenkhamun, where if people stole items from the site, they would be cursed and have bad luck. There are letters from visitors over the past 50+ years returning artefacts which they had taken from the site, ranging from a carved ivory chess piece to a piece of crumbling stone, and in the letter would be an apology and a description of the bad luck they had since stealing the artefact. The prisoners had 1 day off a year and it was Christmas Day – they would all head to church before using the day to go fishing for mutton fish (aka Abalone) and would spend the day eating them.

The grounds are absolutely beautiful – hard to believe that this stunning location was home to over 7000 convicts. The governors and military families had a private garden which they could use, and it literally is something out of an english country garden – english flowers, walkways, pergolas and fountains. The church on the grounds was huge and all of the sandstone walls remained, although the roof and the stained glass windows had now all disappeared. The girls found it fascinating.
We finished touring the ground of the prison (which included a boat cruise to see the isle of the dead – where everyone was buried (freeman on the north of the island and convicts on the south – although the convicts had no burial stones as they didn’t deserve to be recognised), and then ate our packed lunch whilst i used the opportunity to upload last nights blog due to lack of signal in the national park.

Next stop – McHenrys Gin Distillery – 10minutes down an unsealed road – I was after their Sloe Gin, however was really impressed with all of their gins. My favourite being their Sloe and Damson, followed closely by their standard and their Christmas Gin (which is their standard with the addition of frankincense and myrrh). I didn’t like their botanical one, which i think confirms i don’t like botanical gins. Lach tried a couple, one of which was a barrel aged gin. So has a touch of whisky flavour due to the barrel ageing – we purchased a bottle of this, as Santa needs some whisky (and we aren’t going to be buying a bottle of Tasmanian whisky at $250+ a bottle when we don’t really like it) and we also purchased some Sloe Gin….. think we will be buying McHenry’s gin again.

The final stop of the day was for the girls and the big kids. It was the Tasmanian Devil UnZoo. The reason its called an UnZoo is that it is like a zoo, but has no fences or boundaries and welcomes wild animals into the zoo as well as the kept animals. I had done a lot of research on which zoo to visit in Tasmania (as there are many which claim to be the best) so that we would be sure to see some Tasmanian Devils as well as get up close. The UnZoo definitely lived up to all expectations. We walked in and were welcomed with a feeding time for the kangaroos in 10mins, followed immediately by feeding time for the devils. Couldn’t have timed it better if we had tried. We walked to the kangaroos and literally were surrounded by kangaroos – all extremely tame and well kept and being stroked by everyone. There were about 30 people and the same number of kangaroos and a handful of wallabies. It was all hands on deck to feed them – the girls couldn’t get enough of it – even Ava headbutting them to get to the food bowl. We took so many photos and videos, its hard to choose which ones are the best. It was fantastic.

We walked to the devils – to be honest i wasn’t expecting much as they are nocturnal creatures – but low and behold, right in front of us was a devil just sitting there, then another one appeared. We were about 1m away and just watching them. Apparently they don’t have much going for them which is why they are not surviving in the wild (in addition to the face cancer which is spreading through them really quickly), they aren’t smart, they cant see very far, they don’t have a good sense of smell, they only eat meat, and cant run fast – poor things. However they do have the strongest jaw (body to weight ratio) than any other animal. They have a viscous growl but this isn’t a fighting growl (people think they fight like dogs – they don’t), this what they use when something approaches them which they don’t like. We witnessed this when one devil came up behind the other and there was some screeching, but no fighting. They were then thrown some meat and one grabbed it, then kept turning his back on the other one (reminded me of two dogs protecting their food), the one without the food, went around the back and pounced on the food, then the two of them went running round and round with the food locked in both their jaws, then they played tug of war and eventually after about 2mins the food split in two and they both laid down to eat.

We headed back home as Lach wasn’t feeling the best, and the girls wanted to go for a swim and play on the beach. So I took the girls to the beach (with all the accessories for a hot shower afterwards) and they had a ball. The beach was deserted apart from a fisherman and one couple reading a book – the girls had the beach to themselves (no surprise considering the water was freezing). They ran around in thigh deep water and both sat down to get their tummies wet – screamed – then decided it was a little chilly. So we headed for warm showers and back to the van for dinner and PJ’s.

Lach was still unwell, so i packed away as much as i could for tomorrow’s departure, to ensure we maximise our day of wine tasting at the Freycinet region vineyards before arriving at Swansea for our next 3 days – where we will be spending Christmas.