Port Arthur

Port Arthur is a town located on the Tasman Peninsula in eastern Tasmania. From 1833, it was used as a British penal colony. A prison was constructed on the site in the 1850s, and finally closed in 1877. The site is now a museum. In 1996, it was the site of the post-colonial Australia’s worst mass murder, when a gunman killed 35 people and injured 23.

Coordinates

Latitude: -43.177460000000
Longitude: 147.842049100000

Timeline of Events Associated with Port Arthur

Date Event Manage
1 Aug 1838

Molesworth Report

On August 1838, the Molesworth Report was published, beginning the Dissolution of Convict Transportation to Australia.

The report successfully built upon the rhetoric of the abolition movement by drawing connections between convicts and slaves, becoming one of the major deciding factors in eventually putting an end to the entire system of transportation.

Articles

Julie M. Barst, “The Molesworth Report and the Dissolution of Convict Transportation to Australia, August 1838″