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| The tessellated pavement at Eaglehawk Neck |
A planned early start didn’t eventuate - they never do - which meant we didn’t get to Eaglehawk Neck until about 10:30am. An exceedingly narrow strip of land which squeezes the Tasman Peninsular down to less than 100 metres, much like a middle aged woman’s corset and makes a clear divide between the top and bottom half. The causeway at Dunalley does much the same but not as effectively. It was the narrowness of this constriction that allowed the military to place a string of vicious dogs, in a chained row, across the neck to stop prisoners escaping to mainland Tasmania in the 1830’s.
We got our first look at the Tessellated Pavement, a natural phenomena where rock, laid down as sediments, has cracked in near perfect rectangles to form the illusion of a man-made pavement extending out into the Tasman Sea. There are two types - pan and loaf. Pan is often wet or covered by sea and has a flat surface with raised joints. Loaf is more often dry and wet at very high tides or rough weather and has a rounded surface, like the top of a baked loaf of bread. The water gets to dry on these “tiles” and drying salt crumbles away the edges. We dropped in at the end of the day when the tide had ebbed and the extent of the tiling was most impressive.
Arriving at the Port Arthur Historic Site, I made the mistake of taking a large number of cars in the overflow car park as a sign that car parks were full further down the hill. Parking there, we had about a half kilometre walk down to the entry point which didn’t seem onerous until late in the day when we had to walk back up the hill. We arrived at the entrance, surrounded by empty car spaces!
The Port Arthur site runs down the hill, to a fair sized, flat grassed space, fenced with old pickets and at some later stage, adorned with a tar cricket pitch. In fact, a local club claimed this as their home ground - many, many years post it’s original use - and used the stone structure that was the Broadarrow Cafe until April 1996, as their pavilion.
The elephant in my room was the death of a cricket club mate here during the atrocities brought down in this place on 28th April 1996. Jim Pollard was a gentle man of great humour and care, guiding youngsters toward manhood and teaching so much more than cricket skills. He lost his life, confronting his killer after he had shot his friend and after placing his vehicle in the entrance gate to stop further vehicles entering the maelstrom.
That entrance is no longer used. The entrance booth has been removed. Some research, a few gently asked questions (for many of the staff still here now, we’re here on that dreadful day), a walk up the hill and I was standing at the spot. I read Jim’s last murmur’s a poem about his teammates and left.
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| The reflection pool behind the Broadarrow |
On the way down the hill, only metres from Jim’s unmarked demise, two small piles of stone, marked with an engraved brass fallen leaf and the names of the Mikac children, spoke further in the silence of only the wind in trees and birdsong, of enhanced heartbreak beyond anything the vast majority of us would ever know.
I couldn’t get beyond these moments and despite walking 13 kilometres during the day, taking pictures and reading information boards, there was no escape until I walked up that half kilometre to the car.
I’ll let Sue give her impressions of the rest of the room.
Sue
The Port Arthur Complex is huge. It is much bigger than I expected and impossible to do it justice in one day when traveling there from Hobart like we did. I recommend if you are not a spring chicken, staying close by for three nights and doing it over two days to avoid exhaustion. On our way to Port Arthur we stopped at the amazing Tessellated Pavement. See photos.
The Port Arthur Center is set up for crowds so it is streamlined and well staffed.
Downstairs we watched a six minute intro video and then I asked for help with downloading the podcast episodes before leaving the building. I wanted to ensure I had the right ones. They are short and informative and three relate to three sites and the rest are extra info.
Pete and I split up and met back at the center for lunch.
The Penitentiary and the Asylum are the buildings I spent the most time in but I visited all the buildings and read the information boards. I enjoyed the gardens and cottages and helped myself to heirloom apples. A notice board encouraged this. ‘A Living Museum’ it said. 
The asylum
After lunch we took the slow 25 minute cruise of the bay that is included in each ticket. The cruise drops off and picks up those who paid for a guided tour of the Isle of the Dead. The burial place for all the poor souls. Not my thing. We went past the pier for the separate boys’ prison for 9 year olds and up. Finally a move to separate them to stop adult convicts from leading them astray.
A moving memorial garden and reflection pool is behind a hedge and is a place to remember that awful day on the 28 April 1996 when so many were gunned down there. Peter had a cricket mate shot that day. We sat and he told me what Jim (Russel)Pollard tried to do to save others. His actions were heroic before he was shot.
On the way home we found The delightful Pirate Bay Picnic area. The area of dense bushland between us and the beach was full of bird life. We spotted a New Holland Honey Eater and a little wattle bird but heard a variety of other calls.
It was getting on but we stopped at the Tessellated Pavement again as it was low tide. Next we checkedout the EagleHawk Neck Officers Quarters Museum and the Dogline Statues. The Dogline was a row of ferocious dogs chained at intervals across the narrow strip of land separating The penal Settlement from the rest of Tasmania. They would bark when they heard movement and this would alert guards re escaping prisoners..jpg)
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Eyes on the road so as to not kill wildlife and straight to Subway for dinner.
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