This town in Australia used to be a penal colony


The Guard House at Port Arthur is now a museum. — Photos: GISELE SOO/The Star

For decades, the clanking of prison shackles, mingling with the usual din of the town, was a familiar sound for the residents of Port Arthur in Australia’s island state of Tasmania.

The place was once known for being a penal settlement, where convicts were transported to by the British Empire between 1830 and 1877. This was a time when free settlers and thousands of convicts coexisted.

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