Sarah Island was the destination for the 'worst of the worst' convicts from New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land in the 1820s. It wasn't just punishment, it was banishment. A miserable place with miserable weather. The main work for the convicts was ship-building, utilising the Huon pines harvested from the river banks. It was closed when Port Arthur opening in 1830.
Some remains of the ship-docks and slipways:
One of my motivations for doing the Gordon River cruise was the visit to Sarah Island. As some may know, I'm now a history researcher and writer and a couple of years ago I researched a convict builder who had 2 life sentences. I published a paper in a history journal about him and it involved Sarah Island, which I'd never been to. The convict was sent first to NSW and then to the Island and there apparently found his vocation. He was such a good builder that the Commandant recommended his freedom to the Governor. The Gov wasn't having any of that, but eventually he did receive his Ticket-of-Leave and afterwards became a builder of some of the grandest buildings on the east coast of Tasmania.
One of the structures he built (or led the building of) was the 'new' penitentiary, which I photographed above.
Like the other tours we were met by several tour leaders and we had the option to either take a guided walk or do our own thing. I decided to take the tour, and very lucky I did.
There was much more remnants of the settlement left than I expected
Bloody thick walls!
Now at this structure, the bake-house, the guide mentioned that it was built by ... my convict! I didn't have this one down as one of my buildings, so I got chatting to the guide. Unfortunately he didn't know much, just doing a script really (but doing that well) so he was pretty excited to learn more, especially that one of 'his' convicts "made good". In fact, mad every good. he didn't get rich, but was a talented builder whose legacies have outlasted all the commandants etc on Sarah Island and he died in Hobart Town much later.
More of the penitentiary:
and what it was a bit earlier:
Before I go. This is Sarah Island sort of in the middle (it was cleared of vegetation during convict occupation) and the little spec off to the left is Grummet Island. That's where the female convicts were initially 'housed' and later became the punishment venue for any convict on Sarah Island. They just got dumped there.