Port Arthur

The Port Arthur Historic Site is amongst the best-preserved convict settlements in Australia and among the most significant convict era sites in the world. It has become one of the most compelling experiences for visitors to Tasmania through the addition of powerful storytelling and activities that create meaningful and memorable experiences, connecting visitors with Australia’s history and culture. It has won many awards and was named best heritage tourism experience in Australia in 2008 and 2009 by Gourmet Traveller Magazine.

Spread over 40 hectares, the Site contains more than 30 historic buildings and ruins. Some of the shingle-roofed buildings were substantially destroyed in bushfires in the late nineteenth century; their ruins give the place an appropriately eerie countenance. Visitors can discover the intriguing convict history and the many stories of the place as they interact with the Site through a variety of interpretive experiences, including guided tours, harbour cruise, audio tour, multimedia presentations, furnished houses, museum displays, a convict study centre, interpretation gallery and innovative, high-tech experiences at the Dockyard and in the Separate Prison.

There are also magnificent gardens, parkland and short walking trails through the natural bush that surrounds the Site. You can also cruise to the Isle of the Dead and join a guided tour of Port Arthur’s island burial ground. An insight into the lives of those who were part of the penal settlement including convicts, soldiers, civilians and their families.

The Tasman Peninsula has some of the most spectacular coastline anywhere in the world which has been formed through centuries of pounding waves from the Great Southern Ocean. Within the Tasman National Park there are the sea caves, geos, stacks, arches, collapse features and 300-metre (986-foot) high cliffs created by 6,000 years of wave action on the peninsula’s sandstone, dolerite and granite.

You can visit Tasman Arch, the Blowhole, the Devils Kitchen, the Tessellated Pavement, Remarkable Cave and Waterfall Bay by car, but by far the best views are from the park’s many bushwalks: even a stroll of just an hour or two will bring you to the edge of sheer drops overlooking chasms and surging ocean, off-shore islands, white-sand beaches, and a waterfall that tumbles into the sea.