Princes Park

When Governor Lachlan Macquarie toured the Hobart Town settlement in 1811, he was alarmed at the poor state of the defences and the general disorganisation of the colony. Along with planning for a new grid pattern of streets to be laid out, and new administrative and other buildings to be built, he commissioned the building of Anglesea Barracks, which opened in 1814, and is now the oldest continually occupied barracks in Australia. Macquarie also suggested the construction of more permanent fortifications.
Following his advice, a new location comprising an area of 8 acres (32,000 m²) was selected on the hillside of Battery Point just to the south of Hobart Town, and construction began on what was to become the first of a series of new defensive installations.

Source: http://www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/hobart/hobart_defending.htm

By 1818, the new battery had been completed on a location in Battery Point uphill of what is now Castray Esplanade, and was dubbed Mulgrave Battery in honour of Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave, who was at that time Master-General of the Ordnance. The Battery had six guns which projected forward through earthwork embrasures. At first, these were ships guns, but in 1824 they were replaced with 32 pounders. Now Hobart Town had two firing positions protecting either side of the entrance to Sullivans Cove.
Upon its completion, the Mulgrave Battery soon attracted heavy criticism from those who had to serve there. Members of the Royal Artillery felt it was inadequate, and one critic is even said to have described the Battery as "a poor pitiful mud fort."
Engineers reported that the gun carriages were a danger to men firing the guns, and so new timber was sent from Macquarie Harbour in 1829 to make them safer; however, records showed that only one gun had been upgraded by 1831. The same year, the galleries were improved with large 15 metre long sections of timber, heavy bolts, braces and bars.

As the colony began to grow larger, more British Units were sent to serve in the settlement of Hobart Town. Amongst one of these contingents was a commander of the Royal Engineers named Major Roger Kellsall. When he arrived, he assessed these two fortifications, and wrote in his report that he felt the colony was virtually undefended.
He devised an ambitious plan to fortify the whole inner harbour of the Derwent River with a network of heavily armed and fortified batteries located at Macquarie Point, Battery Point and Bellerive Bluff on the eastern shore. He envisaged the forts all having an interlocking firing arc, which would cover the entire approach to Sullivans Cove, making it impossible for ships to enter the docks or attack the town unchallenged.

The scale of the plan was enormous for such a small colony, the population being approximately 20,000 in the 1830s. The small population meant the cost was too prohibitive, considering that at that period the British Empire enjoyed relative peace with the exception of border conflicts in India.
Despite funding problems, work using convict labour did begin in 1840. Mulgrave Battery was enhanced and expanded, and a new site was located slightly further up the hillside on Battery Point, behind the location of the Mulgrave Battery, where construction also commenced in 1840.

A semaphore station, built in 1829, and signal mast were constructed above Mulgrave Battery, allowing communication with ships entering the mouth of the river, and through a relay system of masts, all the way to Port Arthur penitentiary on the Tasman Peninsula. The semaphore station and signal mast are still standing on the edge of Princes Park and once signalled ships entering the harbour, and relayed messages via a chain of stations to Port Arthur.
The modern Hobart suburb of Battery Point takes its name from the Mulgrave Battery. The original guardhouse, built in 1818 which had been located nearby is the oldest building in Battery Point, and one of the oldest buildings still standing in Tasmania.
The new battery, named "Prince of Wales Battery", was completed in 1841. That year ten new 8-inch (200 mm) muzzle loading cannons were lifted into position, enhancing the firepower of the colony's defences. Despite its significant firepower, the poor location and firing angles of the new fortress soon became obvious.

The layout of the fortifications continued to have the Mulgrave and Prince of Wales batteries to the south-west of Sullivans Cove and the Queens Battery to the north-east, until the outbreak of the Crimean War with the Russian Empire. Fear of attack or even invasion by Russian warships of the Imperial Russian Navy, which were known to sail in the South Pacific, led to calls for review of Hobart Town’s defences. A commission was called and it found that further strengthening was needed. With the problems of the Prince of Wales Battery, it was decided a third battery, the Prince Albert Battery (named for HRH Prince Albert Queen Victoria’s Prince Consort), would be constructed even further up the hill, behind the Prince of Wales Battery. These three batteries were to be linked with a series of underground tunnels.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_forces_of_Australia

By 1855, the colony of Van Diemens Land was granted responsible self-government by the colonial Office, and renamed Tasmania. The Colonial Office began to pressure the newly formed local government to take more responsibility for the self-defence of the colony.
As a result of these calls, the Tasmanian colonial government began to establish Volunteer Local Militia Forces. One such force, established in 1859 was the Hobart Town Artillery Company under the command of Captain A. F. Smith, formerly of the 99th. (Wiltshire) Regiment, who began to assume responsibility for the Hobart fortifications from the Royal Artillery who were increasingly being withdrawn, and had all departed well before the withdrawal of the last British forces from Tasmania in 1870. Prior to this, in 1868 a Defence Proposals paper had been published which outlined the need for greater defensive fortifications. It also suggested the need for proposed batteries further to the south of Hobart Town on either side of the river.

Improvements to ship’s armaments meant that the existing fortifications, which provided covering fire to a range of approximately 2,000 yards (2,000 m), would allow enemy ships to ship outside the range of the defenders guns and still be able to bombard the town. This left the colony virtually defenceless.
The arrival of three Imperial Russian Navy warships, the Africa, Plastun, and Vestnik in 1872 caused a great deal of alarm in the colony. Britain and its empire had only been fighting the Crimean war with the Russians 16 years previously. The colony was virtually defenceless, and had the Russians had hostile intent, would probably have easily fallen. Luckily the Russians were on a good will mission, however, it cause a great deal of debate about the state of the colonies defences.

It had also highlighted the state of decay the existing fortresses had reached. Another Commission was carried out, and it was decided the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales and Prince Albert Batteries were inadequate for the defence of the town. By 1878, both had been condemned, and were dismantled by 1880. In 1882, the sites were handed over to Hobart City Council for use as public space, although the tunnels and subterranean magazines remain. Most of the stonework was removed and reused in the construction of the Alexandra Battery further to the south.

Following the closures, the tunnels soon became a popular place for children to play, and at night, the underground magazine rooms often became a meeting place for men to drink and play cards, until they were closed and kept permanently locked by the council in 1934.
To this day, the park in which the Mulgrave, Prince of Wales and Albert Batteries had been located remains a popular public park, and is named Princes Park in honour of the men who served in the batteries there, and as a reminder of the heritage of the site. The iron gate sealing the entrance to the tunnels and underground magazine rooms can still be seen at the base of the park.

Hamilton

Located 74 km northwest of Hobart on the Lyell Highway, Hamilton is a typical Tasmanian Historic Town combining a setting which dates to the early nineteenth century with a range of historic accommodation. It is relatively unspoilt and still sufficiently removed from over-commercialisation to offer the visitor an opportunity to experience what the villages of southern Tasmania were like in the 1830s and 1840s as the town remains relatively unchanged.
The first Europeans into the Hamilton area were the botanist, Robert Brown and his party who attempted to trace the Derwent River to its source in March, 1804. They reached the Hamilton Plains and followed the Fat Doe River (now known as the Clyde) up to the Clyde Falls near the present site of Bothwell.
Hamilton's proximity to Hobart Town meant that the region was visited regularly by search parties, escaped convicts and bushrangers. By the late 1830s the land had been divided and settled.

There are a number of conflicting explanations for the town's name. Some sources claim that it was named Hamilton by Governor Macquarie in 1821 while others claim that in 1829 Governor Arthur named the district after his friend William Henry Hamilton.
Now the accepted explanation is that Governor Macquarie named the locality as 'Sorell Plains', and it became locally known as 'Macquarie' and 'Lower Clyde'. Governor Arthur finalised a name for the locality and this was announced in 1826 (Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser, Friday 28 July 1826, page 3). Hamilton was named after William Henry Hamilton, a wealthy free settler who had arrived in Van Diemen's Land in April 1824.

Hamilton Post Office opened on 1 June 1832.
Hamilton was once a bustling frontier town that contained many inns and several working breweries. It was once destined to be the capital of Tasmania despite its vast distance from any port.
It contains a few small shops and buildings, such as the court house, many of them dating back to convict times.

Whatever the origins the town was known as Hamilton by 1835 and by 1859 a traveller could describe the town as 'Here is a neat Church, a handsome bridge, large inns, breweries and some good shops. And round the village are some of the largest landed proprietors in the country possessing 20 000 and even as many as 40 000 sheep'. Hamilton was declared a municipality in 1863.

Visitors to Hamilton will find historic buildings in the town and scattered amongst the farmland, while many of the town's few small shops date back to convict times.
Of particular interest is St Peter's Church, completed in 1837. The church has only one door. The reason for this was almost certainly to prevent the congregation, which in the early days was about 50 per cent convicts, from attempting to escape.
Also of interest is the Old Schoolhouse, a huge two storey structure built by convict stonemasons in 1858. It was originally constructed so that the Headmaster lived in the room above the central staircase and the children, according to their sex, entered the school from different doors.
Several interesting historic accomodation options are available including three cottages - Emma's, Victoria's and George's Cottage, all built of local sandstone by convicts.

The area was settled by Scottish farmers. Hamilton developed as a transport hub and by the 1830s had two breweries, six inns, stone quarries and agricultural implement makers. It was once destined to be the capital of Tasmania despite its vast distance from any port.
Hamilton's Historic Buildings

This sleepy little village has a number of historic buildings. The most important are St Peter's Church (consecrated in 1838), Glen Clyde House (1840), now a craft gallery, and the accommodation at the Old Schoolhouse (1856), Emma's Cottage (1830), George's Cottage (1845), Victoria's Cottage (1845) and the Hamilton Inn (1834).

St Peter's Church

The foundation stone for St Peter's Church was laid in 1834. It was completed in 1837 and consecrated by Bishop Broughton, the only Bishop of Australia, on 8 May 1838.

It is worth noting that the church has only one door. The reason for this was almost certainly to prevent the congregation, which in the early days was about 50 per cent convicts, from attempting to escape. The original church was a simple stone building. There were plans to add a spire to the tower in the 1920s but they never eventuated.

The headstones around the church date back to the 1830s. One of particular interest is that of Sarah Lane who died at the age of 8 years in 1844.

The inscription on the headstone reads:

This little inoffensive child

To Sunday school had trod

But sad to tell was burnt to death

h

Within the house of God

The dropped 'h' is the result of the stonemason getting his measurements wrong while the untimely death of the child as a result of a Sunday school fire seems extraordinary.
There is an interesting history of the church titled A History of St Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton by Ernest Beavan.

The Old Schoolhouse

The Old Schoolhouse, a huge two storey structure, was built by convict stonemasons in 1858. It is an interesting comment on the times that it was originally constructed so that the Headmaster lived in the room above the central staircase and the children, according to their sex, entered the school from different doors. It was seriously deteriorating and was condemned to be demolished in the early 1970s but its restoration has made it one of Hamilton's most unusual and charming places to stay.
The Old School House building was built for then a princely sum of 700 Pounds. Half of this was raised by the forward thinking Hamilton locals. The front part of the building was one large class room which could accommodate up 80 children. The Head Master lived up stairs with his family.

The School House was closed down as a school in 1932 and “modernised” for the head teachers family, the stone porches located on both sides of the main building, where the girls and boys had entered the class room were removed. The students were relocated into a new weather board class room next to the main building. This building remained as a class room until the early 1960’s where it was closed down and converted into a library for the Hamilton area. The School library was converted into cottage accommodation in 2002. Rose cottage which is attached to the main school building was built in 1972 from sandstone blocks salvaged from the Old Hamilton brewery built in the early 1800’s.

Three Historic Cottages

The three cottages, Emma's, Victoria's and George's, also offer interesting historic accommodation. Like the Old Schoolhouse they were all built of local sandstone by convicts. Their current owner's passion for antiques has meant that they are probably better furnished now than they were when the first residents moved in.

The appeal of Hamilton, which is a truly charming and unspoilt village, is based on its peacefulness and its outstanding range of historic accommodation and overall local history which stretches back to the earliest years of the colony.

Richmond Gaol

Richmond Gaol is the oldest, still intact, gaol in Australia. It predates the penal colony at Port Arthur by five years. A cornerstone of the convict system devised by Governor Arthur, the gaol was erected by convicts in 1825-27 in several stages. The 1835 wing built to accommodate women prisoners are the best preserved female convict structures still existing in Tasmania.

Specific regulations drafted for the Richmond Gaol in the 1830s aimed to maintain a constant vigil on the prisoners. Floggings - usually carried out by convicts or ex-convicts themselves - were frequent.
Many of the gaol’s prisoners remained unbowed by the system imposed upon them and escapes were frequent throughout its history. Convicts resorted to all manner of means to break out, including removing roof shingles, digging under the foundations and removing lintels over windows.
The 1825-7 Richmond Gaol was a cornerstone of the convict system devised by Governor Arthur after his arrival in the colony in 1824. Today, the village of Richmond offers visitors an unsurpassed insight into his system with the courthouse, gaol, church, bridge and sandstone mansions reflecting the intertwined elements of justice, punishment, salvation and public and private labour all intact within the village precincts.

Convicts were transported to the colony as an indentured workforce to build both public infrastructure and private wealth. They were disciplined through severe punishments such as floggings, solitary confinement and hard labour in chain gangs but offered remission of sentences for good behaviour and moral reform.
Enjoined by the British government to establish a ‘stricter surveillance and discipline’ over convicts Arthur created a highly centralised police state to ensure ‘the most minute attention and incessant watchfulness of the conduct of every convict’. Lay ‘gentleman’ magistrates who had previously dispensed justice were replaced by stipendiary magistrates under the control of the Chief Police Magistrate in Hobart. A largely convict police force enforced the laws on the ground. Under Arthur order was restored to the colony and a growing bushranger problem reined in.

Richmond’s stone gaol was erected by convicts in 1825-27. Together with the nearby courthouse the gaol represented Arthur’s first public works in the town, locating justice and punishment at the very heart of his vision for the colony.
The gaol was built in several stages. The first wing, designed by David Lambe, consisted of four men’s cells, one women’s sleeping cell, a javelin’s room, lobby, prisoners’ room, keeper’s room with cellar beneath, passages and entrance hall. It was enclosed by a high paling fence. The javelins were convict warders at the gaol and not all were above reproach:
The gaol was less substantial than Arthur had hoped and maintenance, exacerbated by constant overcrowding and frequent escapes, became a pressing issue. A gaolers house was erected in 1833 and two years later two new wings linked it to the original gaol. They contained a cookhouse with bread oven, a women’s room and four women’s solitary cells in the northern wing and twelve men’s solitary cells opposite. A 3.4m high stone wall erected around the gaol in 1840 enclosed an airing yard 24.4m by 19.5m. The former yard is now partially occupied by the Richmond police residence.

In theory Arthur’s district gaols confined debtors, civil offenders, convicts who were suspected of committing misdemeanours and felonies (including those awaiting trial and those awaiting further punishment after trial) and convicts being transferred between centres.
In practice they developed a wider role, reinforced in Richmond by the town’s rapid growth into the colony’s third largest settlement by 1834. Convict chain gangs engaged in public works (including constructing a road between Hobart and Arthur’s Coal River valley farm) were accommodated there in the 1830s sharing crowded cells and passageways with prisoners on far lesser charges.
Most prisoners were arraigned for minor breaches of convict regulations such as feigning sickness, absconding, refusing to work or drunkenness (the most common offence), brawling and the like. While history has concentrated on white male prisoners, Aborigines and women were also held there.

The district’s extensive hunting grounds were integral to the economy of the Oyster Bay tribe which clashed with the British invaders within months of the establishment of the colony in 1803-04. Poor relations between the races in the Coal valley were exacerbated by ‘a most barbarous and inhuman mode of proceeding acted upon towards them, viz., the robbery of their children’. Tensions escalated in the mid 1820s as waves of immigrants restricted access by fencing previously unenclosed land. Stock, isolated landholders and stockkeepers were speared and Aborigines killed in retaliation. Arthur declared martial law in 1828, creating roving parties charged with finding and capturing Aborigines. One such party was led by the Richmond Chief District Constable, Gilbert Robertson and between 1827 and 1830 the gaol became a depot for Aborigines captured by parties throughout the colony. One detainee was the feared warrior, Umarrah, who successfully escaped before being recaptured and returned to the gaol.

The 1835 wing built to accommodate women prisoners are the best preserved female convict structures extant in Tasmania. Most female convicts were placed in private service to provide domestic servants. Those subsequently convicted of minor offences or en route to Hobart’s Cascades Female Factory were held at the Richmond gaol.
While many women were returned to the factory by dissatisfied masters convict women exercised their own power by committing minor offences to escape unsatisfactory situations. Who then was the difficult party — Richmond Justice of the Peace, Cornthwaite Hector, or the eighteen female convicts he sent before the magistrate over the years? Ann Forest, for example, was given fourteen days solitary on bread and water for insolence and disobedience, a sentence twice repeated for refusing to return to her assignment and absenting herself without leave on her release. Finally Hector returned her to the Cascades.

Strict regulations and punishment regimes lie at the core of any penal system, none more so than Governor Arthur’s colony where ‘the exaction of severe labour from these men must be unremitting’. Arthur’s regulations included the power of summary justice by sentencing prisoners to up to a month’s solitary confinement and seven days bread and water for offences such as riotous and disorderly conduct, profane swearing or indecent language and behaviour. Although power lay ultimately with society and landowners who determined what constituted crime and appropriate behaviour, as with female convicts the recurring names of Richmond landholders sending male convicts to the magistrate might offer us more insight into their character than that of their assigned servants.
Specific regulations drafted for the Richmond Gaol in the 1830s aimed to maintain a constant vigil on the prisoners, prevent corrupt practices by gaolers and ensure adequate medical supervision. A surgeon was required to visit the gaol twice a week and to attend all floggings — a convict flogged to incapacity was of scant economic use to the colony.

Floggings remained frequent — in 1834, for example, one hundred and forty-two men received a total of 4425 lashes. Flagellators were usually convicts or ex-convicts themselves and were almost universally detested by the prisoners. The colonial hangman, Solomon Bleay, was also imprisoned at Richmond Gaol between 1842 and 1845, being escorted to and from Hobart and Launceston (the only places of execution), when necessary, to carry out his duties.
Magistrates could sentence convicts to eight categories of punishment. These included reprimand, the treadmill, hard labour by day and solitary by night, the lash, work in chain gang and transportation to a penal settlement. Solitary confinement, increasingly used during the 1820s and 1830s in lieu of flogging as a further punishment, deprived prisoners as far as possible of all human contact. Sixteen solitary cells were erected at Richmond gaol in 1835.

Together with punishment religion was pivotal. Although a chaplain was not appointed to Richmond gaol until 1835 convicts were required to attend Divine Service each Sunday. Thus encouraged to reflect on their ‘unhappy’ moral and physical situation before the risen Lord rapid reform was confidently predicted. The construction of St Luke’s Church at Richmond in 1838 completed the town’s convict trinity with the gaol physically located between justice (the courthouse) and salvation (St Luke’s).
Jurisdiction for the Richmond Gaol was transferred from the Sheriff’s Department to the police after the transportation of convicts ended in 1853. In June 1861, Richmond became Tasmania’s fourth municipality, and the gaol was taken over by the newly formed Municipal Police.

After the police force was centralised under colonial control, Richmond Gaol continued to be used as a gaol until 1928. It was unsuccessfully offered for sale in 1929 then ceded to the State Government as a State Reserve under the Scenery Preservation Board in December 1945. It was subsequently gazetted as an Historic Site under the National Parks and Wildlife Act in 1970.

One of the Gaol’s most infamous inmates was English convict, Ikey Solomon, said to be the model for Charles Dicken’s character Fagin in Oliver Twist.

Text & Information sourced from Website: http://www.richmondgaol.com.au/index.html

Penitentiary Chapel

The Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site on the corner of Brisbane and Campbell Streets was one building that Colonial Architect and Civil Engineer John Lee Archer designed to cleverly fulfill the answer to several problems. By 1829 St. David's Church in Hobart Town was becoming so overcrowded that a second Anglican church was needed to enable the free inhabitants to worship in comfort, especially those who now lived in the outer regions of the town. But more importantly it was felt that a place for worship and religious instruction for the vastly increasing numbers of arriving convicts was long overdue.

In 1830, ships brought 2150 new convicts making a total of over 10,000 convicts in Van Diemen’s Land . Many had been assigned out, but a considerable number were housed in the Prisoners’ Barracks Penitentiary or as they called it ‘The Tench’. Most of these convicts were taken out on daily work parties for road and building construction, while those with bad records toiled on the barracks’ treadmill grinding wheat. Others carted and broke large rocks from the nearby quarry into small stones to be used for road works.

Although Hobart Town had originally been established only as a gaol town with many convicts and a few free settlers, facilities for the secure holding and separating into classes of such large numbers of prisoners were virtually non existent.

Convicts and free settlers alike who committed local offences were held in the town gaol in Murray Street near the corner of Macquarie Street . This small two-story building, begun in 1816, was soon falling apart as it had been constructed using inferior bricks on soft damp ground. It rapidly became overcrowded and escapes were numerous, but it remained in full use as town gaol and scene of all Hobart executions from 1825 until 1857.

In 1829 John Lee Archer designed a new gaol to be built directly across Murray Street next to the courthouse on the present site of the Treasury Buildings. It was in the shape of a cruciform with a flat landing leading from a chapel on which it was proposed to execute criminals. This building was never built, but its cruciform shape was to be used when Lee Archer prepared the plans for the Penitentiary Chapel

At the other end of town holding the transported convicts was the Barracks building of the Tench, which faced Campbell Street near the Bathurst Street end of a large open block. Lee Archer placed the Chapel at the Brisbane Street end facing the Penitentiary. The two-acre block was enclosed with a high stone wall, the top encrusted with broken glass.

With such large numbers of convicts, another secure cellblock was sorely needed. So Lee Archer designed the ground floor of the Chapel to contain thirty-six solitary confinement punishment cells.

These brick cells varied in height to support the inclined floors for the chapel above. The cells had no light and little ventilation. Called the ‘Dust Hole’, the entrance to the smallest cells was only 70 cm high. (27 inches). Convicts who returned drunk from daily work parties would be cast through this opening into the solitary darkness of the cells to sober up. Declared inhuman, the smallest Dust Hole cells were sealed up in 1847.

Semi-circular exercise yards enclosed the cruciform arms of the chapel with easy access from the cellblocks. Each of the three wings of the chapel would hold 500 prisoners on bench seats. The prisoners would enter the chapel by doors in the southern wall on either side of the raised pulpit, which was directly beneath the main window and ‘foundation stone, which bears the date Anno Domini M.DCCCXXXI (1831).

Almost immediately it was decided to open the northern wing of the chapel to the overflow congregation of free inhabitants from St. David’s Church, so Lee Archer designed what is recognised as one of the best examples of colonial towers in Australia as the free entrance to the Penitentiary Chapel from Brisbane Street.

The tower, a reflection of Renaissance Greek Temple and Wren influence had a more mundane purpose as well as an aesthetic reason for its style. The floor level at the Brisbane Street end of the chapel was some five metres above ground level because of the sloping floor with the cells beneath, so a large staircase spiralled around inside the tower to a doorway cut high in the chapel wall.

The public, after entering the northern wing via the tower staircase, were seated in neat cedar pews which could be reserved at a nominal annual rental of £1 ($2), while the 1000 convicts in the east and west wings were crowded in and shared simple but hard wooden bench seats.

Although building costs escalated to over £2000 ($4000) and constructional delays were numerous, the chapel was in full use by late 1833. However, another six months passed before the final fittings were finished and the tower completed, including the installation of the dual faced clock built in 1828 by Thwaites and Reed of Clerkenwell, London .

Rural Dean Rev. Philip Palmer was installed as Penitentiary chaplain, but soon incurred the wrath of Lieutenant Governor Arthur by hanging a screen to shield the public from the gaze of the convicts. The screen remained even though the convicts sorely objected to being so segregated.

Complaints were also forthcoming regarding the total lack of ventilation in the chapel and the disruption to services caused by the terrible noises which could be heard coming from the chained convicts in the cells beneath the floor.

The Penitentiary Chapel was never consecrated as a church, although normal services including communion, baptisms, funerals and marriages were conducted for many years.

Linus W. Miller, a twenty-two year old American lawyer who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land as a state prisoner from Canada after becoming involved in the 1838 Canadian rebellion, arrived on the ‘Canton’ in Hobart Town on 17 January 1840. As was normal he was barracked in the Penitentiary and it is from his educated writings that we can gain a first hand insight into daily life of the convicts. The following is just a small part of his description of their attendance at Divine Service in the Penitentiary Chapel.

‘On looking about me, I could not discover more than twelve, among twelve hundred prisoners, who appeared to be taking any notice of the service. Some were spinning yarns, some playing at pitch and toss, some gambling with cards; several were crawling about under the benches, selling candy, tobacco, &c., and one fellow carried a bottle of rum, which he was serving out in small quantities to those who had an English sixpence to give for a small wine-glass full.

Disputes occasionally arose which ended in a blow or kick; but in these cases the constables, who were present to maintain order, generally felt called upon to interfere. If any resistance was offered to their authority the culprit was seized by the arms and collar, dragged out of the church and thrust into the cells beneath.’

The Chapel remained in use by the public until 25 February 1845 when it was closed by the Comptroller General and used only by convicts, prison officers and their families.

Prisoners’ Barracks Superintendent James Boyd proudly reported in 1847 that ‘It is however most gratifying to me in being able to state that the convicts show the utmost attention and propriety of demeanor [sic] during Divine service, and apparently feel interested in the very excellent discourses which are delivered to them.’

Meanwhile a chapel in High Street (now Tasma Street ) was rented from the Methodist Church for temporary use of the free people of the parish until January 1848 when the present Trinity Church was finally opened for worship.

The Rev. Mr. J. Medland, who had replaced Rev. Palmer as Penitentiary Chaplain, reopened the chapel in 1853 to forty of his close followers during a very public row with church authorities over his promotion to Chaplain of Trinity Church.

On 1 January 1857 the Penitentiary was proclaimed a Gaol and House of Correction. Extensive alterations were carried out to house the prisoners and debtors from Murray Street gaol. The prisoners were finally removed from that crumbling ruin to their new quarters on Saturday, 13 June.

The old gaol was quickly sold, demolition commencing within a month. The State Bank of Tasmania (later the Trust Bank) occupying the site for many years.

An execution yard was added to the western wing of the chapel. The scaffold beams and trapdoor mechanism from the Murray Street gaol were installed. The first execution on Tuesday, 18 August 1857 being carried into effect upon Alexander Cullen, alias ‘Scotty’, for the wilful murder of Elizabeth Ross. The Hobart Town Mercury next day reporting ‘The unhappy man seemed perfectly resigned to his fate’.

On 18 February 1862 , Margaret Coghlin was executed for the wilful murder of her husband John. She was the only woman among the thirty-two souls who suffered the extreme penalty of the law within the walls of the execution yard up until the last Tasmanian hanging on Thursday, 14 February 1946 .

The first Supreme Court in Hobart was constructed between 1823-25 on the opposite corner of Murray and Macquarie Streets from the old gaol.

It was a gloomy stone building, always criticised for being far too small, having bad ventilation, inadequate heating and extremely poor acoustics.

Late in 1857 alterations were carried out, the interior of the court cleaned and renovated, with gas lighting installed for evening sittings.

However, just over twelve months later, tenders were invited by the Director of Public Works for the additions and alterations required in the erection of court houses and offices at the Penitentiary.

These major alterations involved converting the nave and eastern transept of the Chapel into two courtrooms. Cedar pews and fittings were to be utilised in the courts as jury boxes and reporter’s benches.

The inclined wooden floors in these areas were removed, then the brick cells beneath the floors were demolished.

Gas lit, stone lined tunnels were installed below floor level to connect the dock of each court to a central entrance where the pulpit once stood

New street level floors, external doors and dividing high walls were constructed to separate each of the courts from the western transept, which was retained as a chapel in almost its original state, most religious denominations using it for weekly services for the prisoners in the gaol until 1961.

Jury rooms and offices for members of the legal profession were constructed on the corner between Campbell and Brisbane Streets.

Rooms to house the deputy gaoler were added to the first floor. The court rooms were first used on 17 April 1860, His Honor Sir Valentine Fleming, Knight Chief Justice presiding in Court 1, while His Honor Mr. Justice Horne sat in Court 2.

The courts continued with various uses as Supreme Courts, Criminal, Magistrates and Coroners Courts up until 1983, with only minor alterations such as additional toilets in 1916, electric lighting and heating and the acoustic ceiling and air conditioning of Court 2 in the 1950’s.

With the transfer of prisoners to Risdon Prison early in 1961, the 1910 Deputy Gaoler’s residence in Brisbane Street was converted to a daytime holding block with ‘cyclone wire’ cells for prisoners awaiting trial.

In order to gain access to the tunnels under the courts leading to the docks, the chapel was demolished and the wire security cage runway installed.

Thus, we have existing today a fascinating insight into Colonial Tasmania. A beautiful 1834 tower with the two courtrooms remaining virtually unchanged for over 145 years.

And the Gaol Chapel, although partially destroyed in the 1960’s, has been restored to depict the original architectural design concept of John Lee Archer’s Penitentiary Chapel

Text by Brian Rieusset - 2006

Guided tours by National Trust volunteers are well worth participating in. The tours last for approx 75 minutes and the stories and information that is passed on by the guides is fantastic. The site also offers ghost tours on Monday & Friday nights. All in all, a fascinating insight to convict history in early Hobart.

Website: http://www.penitentiarychapel.com/index.htm