My piccie of the day is of a ruin of a pioneer era house in Tassie.
I find ruins really appealing, history, architecture and a marker of the fleeting nature of life all in one.
Pushing 180 years old buildings don't get much older in Oz.
Showing posts with label Ruins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruins. Show all posts
Monday, December 17, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Hell on Earth
A few days ago I posted about Walhalla with the throw away title of “Al goes to Heaven”.
Well tonight I am talking about another spectacularly beautiful place that was once quite simply hell for those who lived, worked and often died there.
Down in Tasmania on the spectacularly beautiful Tasman Peninsula, not far from the world famous ruins of Port Arthur lies another set of Convict Era ruins.
Approaching the ruins today, you walk through peaceful bushland, then quite suddenly you come into open ground and up on a mound to one side you see this.
Following the path around you come up onto the platform that once formed the parade ground of the settlement that was here.
It is eerily beautiful, and I had a great time catching angles:
From inside the bakehouse
Across the ground to a barrack house
And looking through the remains of the hospital you get a hint of just how spectacular the scenery around here is.
But just a short stroll up the hill beneath what was a brick built guard house is a pointer to how terrible this place was.
Because, you see, this location is known as “The Convict Coal Mines”
The prisoners here had been sent from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to the far ends of the Earth.
For some convicts life in Oz was not in the end too bad. Once they served their sentence they really did have a chance at a new life.
But the prisoners who came here came to a real hell.
Coal mines anywhere in the 19th century were terrible. But to add to that these men were not skilled miners, but in most cases unskilled prisoners from the slums of the UK.
They slaved underground in the most abysmal conditions driven on by the usual punishments of the day, floggings and the like.
But there was an extra punishment for those who the system chose to break.
I am guilty of misdirection with my tales of treasury vaults last night.
Those of you who said a vaulted ceiling were right.
Because under that guardhouse were the punishment cells
This passage gives a hint of how dark this space was. Bear in mind that where the light is pouring in today was once below ground in a prison cellar, the ceiling at the far end has collapsed.
Here is a piccie of one of the cells. It is just long enough for me to lie down. I had to duck to get under this ceiling and the width is just a little more than my shoulders.
It only looks light because I had to use a flash to get this shot. Without it I could not see the end even with the light from the hall. The only positive thing about them is even as a ruin they are dry.
As a punishment, men were locked in these spaces for days and sometimes weeks at a time in the pitch dark. And when they were let out it was only to face another round down the mine.
Above is so beautiful today it is quite sobering to see this evidence of just what a hell this place was.
Well tonight I am talking about another spectacularly beautiful place that was once quite simply hell for those who lived, worked and often died there.
Down in Tasmania on the spectacularly beautiful Tasman Peninsula, not far from the world famous ruins of Port Arthur lies another set of Convict Era ruins.
Approaching the ruins today, you walk through peaceful bushland, then quite suddenly you come into open ground and up on a mound to one side you see this.
Following the path around you come up onto the platform that once formed the parade ground of the settlement that was here.
It is eerily beautiful, and I had a great time catching angles:
From inside the bakehouse
Across the ground to a barrack house
And looking through the remains of the hospital you get a hint of just how spectacular the scenery around here is.
But just a short stroll up the hill beneath what was a brick built guard house is a pointer to how terrible this place was.
Because, you see, this location is known as “The Convict Coal Mines”
The prisoners here had been sent from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to the far ends of the Earth.
For some convicts life in Oz was not in the end too bad. Once they served their sentence they really did have a chance at a new life.
But the prisoners who came here came to a real hell.
Coal mines anywhere in the 19th century were terrible. But to add to that these men were not skilled miners, but in most cases unskilled prisoners from the slums of the UK.
They slaved underground in the most abysmal conditions driven on by the usual punishments of the day, floggings and the like.
But there was an extra punishment for those who the system chose to break.
I am guilty of misdirection with my tales of treasury vaults last night.
Those of you who said a vaulted ceiling were right.
Because under that guardhouse were the punishment cells
This passage gives a hint of how dark this space was. Bear in mind that where the light is pouring in today was once below ground in a prison cellar, the ceiling at the far end has collapsed.
Here is a piccie of one of the cells. It is just long enough for me to lie down. I had to duck to get under this ceiling and the width is just a little more than my shoulders.
It only looks light because I had to use a flash to get this shot. Without it I could not see the end even with the light from the hall. The only positive thing about them is even as a ruin they are dry.
As a punishment, men were locked in these spaces for days and sometimes weeks at a time in the pitch dark. And when they were let out it was only to face another round down the mine.
Above is so beautiful today it is quite sobering to see this evidence of just what a hell this place was.
Labels:
Australia,
Convict,
Convict Coal Mines,
Port Arthur,
Ruins,
Tasman Peninsula,
Tasmania
Monday, May 14, 2012
Ruin in Western Victoria
My piccie of the day is a shot of a ruined farm house in western Victoria.
I took this last October on one of our weekend day trips.
I asked the farmer if could walk into his canola (rapeseed) crop to get a closer look.
I took this last October on one of our weekend day trips.
I asked the farmer if could walk into his canola (rapeseed) crop to get a closer look.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Autumn
Autumn is here and today it began to bite. We have had a cold (by our standards) and wet couple of days.
We didn’t have much of a summer this year what with the endless, often flooding rain.
So to cheer myself up I am posting a few sunny piccies from our mini vacation of a couple of weeks ago.
This almost gothic building is the former courthouse at Yarram in Gippsland.Two more shots at Port Welshpool.
A crayfish boat:The mountains in the background of this one are Wilson’s Promontory. They form a massive peninsula that protrudes into Bass Straight. They are the most southerly point of the Oz mainland. A national park, they are very beautiful and popular as a walking/camping destination.
Speaking of flooding rains our Army was busy evacuating hundreds of people by helicopter from Wilson’s Prom today. They have had such heavy rain there that flash flooding has destroyed sections of the only road in and washed away one of the bridges.
Now to end on an up note. This ruin is at Port Albert.It is for sale
Deb was very tempted. I’m not quite so sure (I know who’d get to fix it up) :-)
We didn’t have much of a summer this year what with the endless, often flooding rain.
So to cheer myself up I am posting a few sunny piccies from our mini vacation of a couple of weeks ago.
This almost gothic building is the former courthouse at Yarram in Gippsland.Two more shots at Port Welshpool.
A crayfish boat:The mountains in the background of this one are Wilson’s Promontory. They form a massive peninsula that protrudes into Bass Straight. They are the most southerly point of the Oz mainland. A national park, they are very beautiful and popular as a walking/camping destination.
Speaking of flooding rains our Army was busy evacuating hundreds of people by helicopter from Wilson’s Prom today. They have had such heavy rain there that flash flooding has destroyed sections of the only road in and washed away one of the bridges.
Now to end on an up note. This ruin is at Port Albert.It is for sale
Deb was very tempted. I’m not quite so sure (I know who’d get to fix it up) :-)
Labels:
Australia,
Autumn,
Photography,
Port Albert,
Port Welshpool,
Ruins,
Wilson's Promontory
Friday, January 7, 2011
ARRRR, Remarkable Ruins
Sorry I couldn't help myself with the title of this post.
We continue to explore Tassie and the past few days we have been based in Hobart the capital and have explored chunks of the South East Coast.
Now to the title of this post.
In just the past two days we have seen Pirate Bay (I'm not kidding that really is its name)
Remarkable Caves
And an entire ruined prison town.Now a question. I've been teasing with just a few of the thousands of photos I have taken over the past days in different places. I'm now trying to get my head around showing more when I get home but how do I go about it? Do I do a general overview, or do I focus on particular areas? If so what do I start with?
We continue to explore Tassie and the past few days we have been based in Hobart the capital and have explored chunks of the South East Coast.
Now to the title of this post.
In just the past two days we have seen Pirate Bay (I'm not kidding that really is its name)
Remarkable Caves
And an entire ruined prison town.Now a question. I've been teasing with just a few of the thousands of photos I have taken over the past days in different places. I'm now trying to get my head around showing more when I get home but how do I go about it? Do I do a general overview, or do I focus on particular areas? If so what do I start with?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)