Port Arthur Historic Site: Hobart Travel Guide (4.6★)

Four storeys of sandstone with no roof, windows open to the sky, stand at the edge of Mason Cove. This is the Penitentiary. It started life as a flour mill and granary and was turned into convict cells in the 1850s. Bushfires gutted it in the late 1890s. It sits in the middle of the grounds, and you will walk past it again and again.

Port Arthur ran as a penal station from 1830 to 1877. It is now one of the eleven places listed together as the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property. The grounds cover a wide sweep of lawn, ruins and restored houses around the water. Expect to spend a full day here, not a quick stop.

The ruins around Mason Cove

Start at the Visitor Centre, then head down to the waterfront. Entry usually includes an introductory walking tour and a short harbour cruise. Doing both early gives you the layout and the main stories before you go off on your own.

These are the buildings to plan around:

• The Penitentiary, the roofless shell on the cove and the image on most postcards.
• The Separate Prison, built for silent, solitary confinement. It has hooded exercise yards and a chapel where each man sat in his own walled stall.
• The Convict Church, a Gothic sandstone ruin up the slope that was never consecrated.
• The Commandant’s House and the officers’ cottages, restored and furnished, showing life on the other side of the walls.
• The Guard Tower and the Military Precinct, the earliest stone structures on the site.

Across the water: Isle of the Dead and Point Puer

You can see two places from the shore that are worth the extra time. The Isle of the Dead is the settlement’s small cemetery island. Convicts, soldiers and free settlers were buried there, the convicts mostly in unmarked graves. Guided landings are run as a separate tour, so check availability at the Visitor Centre.

Point Puer, across the bay, held boys as young as nine in a separate juvenile prison. Little of it is left standing. Hearing its history from the cruise or a guide changes how the rest of the site reads.

Getting there from Hobart

Drive east out of Hobart across the Tasman Bridge. Then follow the Arthur Highway (A9) through Sorell and down the peninsula. The trip takes roughly 90 minutes without stops. The road narrows and winds after Dunalley, so allow extra time if you aren’t used to driving on the left.

Coach day tours from Hobart are the main alternative if you aren’t driving. Some combine the site with a harbour cruise or the coastline at Tasman National Park.

Good stops on the way down:

• Eaglehawk Neck, the thin isthmus once guarded by a line of chained dogs to stop escapes.
• The Tessellated Pavement, a flat rock shelf near Eaglehawk Neck that has cracked into near-perfect tiles.
• Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen, sea-carved cliffs a few minutes off the highway.
• Remarkable Cave, a short drive south of the site itself.

Pacing the day, not racing it

The gates are open from 9am to 5pm, every day of the week. Leaving Hobart early enough to arrive right at opening, 9am, gets you there before the coach crowds. Coach tours tend to arrive mid-morning, so arriving early usually means you see the Separate Prison before the groups do.

The grounds are large and the slopes are grassy, with some steep paths up to the church and the houses. Tasmanian weather can turn quickly, even in summer, so pack a waterproof layer. Evening ghost tours run after the day site closes. They are booked separately, so check the official Port Arthur website for dates and current prices.

Respect on the grounds

Port Arthur is a heavily visited, consistently well-rated landmark, and it gets treated as such. It is also a place of grief beyond the convict era. In 1996 a mass shooting killed 35 people here, and the Memorial Garden now stands at the site of the Broad Arrow Café, where many of them died.

Some things visitors are asked to remember:

• Don’t question staff about the 1996 events. Many guides and locals have personal connections to that day. The Memorial Garden says what needs saying.
• Keep your voice down in the Memorial Garden and in the Separate Prison chapel. Both are quiet on purpose.
• Stay off the ruined walls. The sandstone is fragile, and climbing is not allowed.
• Book extras on arrival or online. The Isle of the Dead and Point Puer tours have limited places on busy days.

For the end of the day, walk back down to the cove. Look back at the Penitentiary from the water’s edge before you leave, then drive north while there is still light on the Arthur Highway.