Our first couple of weeks in Oz was spent following the convicts round Tassie. From Hobart and the Female Factory (well they were women so you couldn't really call it a prison now could you), through Richmond and the convict built bridge (the flagellator was a bit enthusiastic here and got thrown off by the chain gang), then on to Port Arthur (a beautiful site that was the scene of unspeakable horror) where we went on a ghost tour with nothing to report and we finished off with Sarah Island (the original secondary prison and a very profitable shipyard). All these places have amazing stories attached to them, and it wasn't really all that long ago. When we went to Perth we found out just how recent - Freemantle Prison was built by and for the convicts in the 1800s but only stopped being a maximum security prison in 1991... Tassie is also an incredibly beautiful island and we found ourselves tramping around again, my favourite was definitely the Bay of Fires, absolutely stunning beaches all to ourselves - pity it wasn't a little warmer!
