Hobart (the Penitentiary)

 

It's Wednesday at 7 a.m., the sun is shining, and we are just passing Arthurs River, leaving Tasmania. We are travelling at 20.9 knots, and the sea depth is 3290 metres.

We have travelled 940 nautical miles so far on the trip.

Yesterday, we spent time in Hobart, exploring one of Australia’s most poignant historical sites under the drizzle of rain and the challenge of a 1.5-kilometre walk uphill. Our destination? The National Trust of Hobart for their Unshackled Exhibition—a remarkable journey into Tasmania's convict history.

Entrance to the Penitentiary Chapel (this entrance for the free folk)

The exhibition is a four-part experience that immerses visitors in the lives, struggles, and stories of the 75,000 convicts transported to Tasmania between 1803 and 1853. Here's what made our morning unforgettable:

The Pandemonium segment took place in the prison chapel and used a powerful widescreen presentation to depict Tasmania's convict years from 1803 to 1853. The mix of archival imagery, narration, and dramatic visuals brought to life the hardships and resilience of the convicts, many of whom faced unimaginable challenges in their new world.

The guided Site Tour included courtrooms, subterranean tunnels, prison cells, the gallows, and the exercise yard—all constructed by convict labour.

Here is Kyle, our dour but historically fulsome guide, standing in the excavated part of the church. Above him are tiered church pews, imaging the church has been cut down the middle with pews on one side and excavation on the other. The two arches you see behind him are two solitary confinement cells. The lowest height of a cell was 70cm, that one is under the pulpit!

Here are the actual beams from which 32 people were hung at the Penitentiary between 1857 and 1946. The blackened beams were salvaged from a fire set to destroy shameful convict history. The rope is from Bunnings but does have the customary 13 knots representing the 12 jurors and 1 judge. 

We heard to sorry tale of the hangman, Solomon Blay, a man so despised that no one would take him in their carriage when he had to travel 100kms from his home to undertake a hanging. So he had to walk!

He took the job aged 25, just 4 years into his sentence, as a improve his living conditions. Over hos 50 year career, he was the must despised man in Hobart. Even when he went back to England, he was ostracised by his original village.

The highlight was the Convict Memorial. See Clare’s post, Bringing convicts to life. Never have I been so disappointed to have no convicts in my family!

If you find yourself in Hobart, don’t miss this immersive experience.