The Port Arthur prison operated from 1833 to 1877. Today Port Arthur is home to many reputed cases of haunting and ghosts - particularly of convict origin. These include cases of cells with ghostly screams and empty rocking chairs that move. Take a night time GHOST TOUR along a lantern lit walk.

Port Arthur was also the destination for juvenile convicts, receiving many boys, some as young as nine arrested for stealing toys. The boys were separated from the main convict population and kept on Point Puer, the British Empire's first boys' prison. Like the adults, the boys were used in hard labour such as stone cutting and construction.

Port Arthur was still as harsh and brutal as other penal settlements. Some critics might even suggest that its use of psychological punishment, compounded with no hope of escape, made it one of the worst. Some tales suggest that prisoners committed murder (an offence punishable by death) just to escape the desolation of life at the camp. The Island of the Dead was the destination for all who died inside the prison camps. Of the 1646 graves recorded to exist there, only 180, those of prison staff and military personnel, are marked.

Penitentiary: Easily the most imposing ruin on the site, the Penitentiary began its life in 1843 as a flour mill and granary. In 1857 it was converted into a penitentiary capable of housing over 480 convicts in both dormitory-style accommodation and separate apartments. Gutted in the 1897 fires, the building lay derelict until the 1960s.

Port Arthur was sold as an inescapable prison, much like the later Alcatraz Island in the United States. One of the most infamous incidents, was the escape attempt of one George "Billy" Hunt. Hunt disguised himself using a kangaroo hide and tried to flee across the Neck, but the half-starved guards on duty tried to shoot him to supplement their meager rations. When he noticed them sighting him up, Hunt threw off his disguise and surrendered, receiving 150 lashes.

Officers Row: Including the Junior Medical Officer's House (1848), 'Civil Officers Row', the Parsonage (1842), the Accountant's House (1842), The Magistrate's and Surgeon's House (1847) and the Roman Catholic Chaplain's House (1843), which are furnished and open to visitors.

Dockyards: Port Arthur was home to an industrious shipbuilding enterprise that saw 15 large timber vessels, and over 140 smaller boats, built at the dockyard. Using timber cut by the convicts and utilising convict labour, the dockyards employed over 70 convicts at its peak.

Church: Constructed in 1836, Port Arthur's church is a tribute to its convict builders. Built of timber and stone, the church overlooked the convict settlement from the high ground to the west and could accommodate a prison population of over one thousand souls. Never consecrated due to its usage by a number of different denominations, the church was representative of the authorities goals to reform through religion. The church was destroyed in an 1884 fire and has since seen many conservation works throughout the 20th century.

Hospital: The Hospital was made up of wards, kitchen, baking room, laundry and morgue. As the convicts of Port Arthur worked in heavy industries such as timber-getting, accident victims at the hospital were common. The hospital was staffed by a doctor and a number of untrained convict orderlies. In the 1890s, the hospital building was sold to the Catholic Church, but was unfortunatley burnt in the 1895 and 1897 fires.

1996 Masscre: No one at Port Arthur talks about the tragic loss of 35 innocent lives nor is the name of the crazed, cold-blooded gunman behind the abominable act ever uttered. Much has been said and written about one of the world's worst killing sprees which unfolded with terrifying speed at the Broad Arrow cafe in the early afternoon and while the blonde-haired, pale-faced perpetrator will never be released from his prison cell, many locals are still traumatised.