The ghosts of port arthur

Do you believe in ghosts? Have you heard a door slam when there was no wind, or footsteps in a deserted house? Perhaps you have seen an insubstantial figure materialise out of nowhere and disappear when you moved towards it.

Many people who visit the Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania, the island state of Australia, believe that they have seen or heard ghosts from its tragic convict past. Between 1803 and 1854 some 70,000 convicts, men and women, were transported to Van Dieman's Land (now Tasmania). Those who committed serious offences in the colony could expect to be sent to either Macquarie Harbour or Port Arthur, places of secondary punishment, chosen for their remoteness which made escape almost impossible.

The Parsonage is said to be one of the most haunted places at Port Arthur, with rumours of ghostly sightings going back to the middle of the nineteenth century. The Reverend George Eastman died in an upstairs bedroom. When he was placed in his coffin it was too awkward to carry down the stairs so a rope was rigged to lower it out of the window onto the ground. However the coffin was too heavy, the rope broke and the corpse was tipped into a gutter. For many years after this unfortunate incident people reported smelling rotting flesh, hearing unearthly moaning noises and seeing strange lights inside the parsonage.

A nineteenth century writer, George Gruncell, described a number of strange events that occurred at the Parsonage in the 1870s. The Hayward family had been visiting Melbourne and the Reverend Hayward had hurried back leaving his family to follow. One night after his return, the doctor at the settlement, seeing lights from the upstairs rooms of the Parsonage, thought that the parson's wife and children had returned. When he went to welcome them home, he found only the Reverend Hayward and a servant. No one had been upstairs and when the rooms were inspected they were found to be in darkness. But others in the settlement had also seen the lights and assumed that the family had returned.

On another occasion the Reverend and his wife were sitting in the drawing room when they became aware of an intense light shining under the door of the study across the landing. When they peered through the keyhole the room appeared to be brilliantly illuminated, yet when they opened the door it was in complete darkness. A few months later they had Judge Flemming staying with them and they told him the story of the mysterious lighted room. He was not inclined to believe the story but that same night the lights appeared again exactly as they had before. They all peered through the keyhole at the brightly lit room but when they opened the door it was completely dark.

The guest chamber gained a reputation as a haunted room. A lady guest was driven from her bed one night by unexplained knocking noises that seemed to come from the walls and floors in the room. When she fled up the stairs she heard the patter of feet behind her.

Some months later, a servant was sent to check the fire in this room. Suddenly she let out a terrific shriek and collapsed senseless in the middle of the room. When she was revived, she explained that she had seen the figure of a man looking at her through the window. He had a knife or dagger in his hand and he held it as though about to strike. She would never again enter the room after dark.

Shortly before the penal settlement was disbanded, Mrs Hayward's mother and sister came to visit. One night Mrs Price, the mother, was unable to sleep. The moon was shining through the window and as she lay with her eyes open she became aware that somebody had entered the room. It was a human figure draped in white. She lay still and watched the figure through half open eyes, afraid that it might be a burglar after her jewels.

The figure appeared to strike a match and then made its way to a cot in which a child was sleeping. After looking at the sleeping child for a moment it turned and glided out of the room.

During the early 1980s a considerable amount of conservation and restoration work was undertaken at Port Arthur. Three builders who were renovating the Parsonage camped in the building while carrying out the work. One reported catching sight of a woman dressed in old-fashioned clothing, and he felt the temperature in the room drop and saw the curtains billowing even though the window was firmly closed. Another of the builders told of waking in the night, thinking he was being attacked by someone who was pressing down on his chest and forcing the air out of his lungs. All three reported hearing banging noises that could not be accounted for.

Sightings of ghostly figures have been recorded in the medical officer's residence and in recent times people have reported hearing children's laughter coming from the upstairs rooms. Moaning and footsteps have also been heard in the commandant's residence for more than a century. It is said that the ghost of Commandant Charles O'Hara Booth stands at the window of his bedroom, looking out over the settlement as he weeps silently.

The old powder magazine beside the commandant's residence is surmounted by a watch tower. One morning people were woken to the sound of Reveille being played on a ghostly bugle. And in the Tower Cottage, directly behind the watch tower there have been reports of seeing a soldier in a red uniform.

Private Robert Young was drowned near the jetty in 1840. Some years ago, a guest at Jetty Cottage woke in fright to see a figure of a man with straight black hair and wearing a ruffled white shirt in her room. Other guests have seen the same figure sitting on the front steps of the cottage and on the jetty.

Some who were sent to Port Arthur were already insane; many more became so after being confined in the punishment cells of the Model or Separate Prison. The screams of a young boy, confined in the condemned cell for two weeks while awaiting execution, are said to echo round the walls of the prison. Another convict, William Carter, handed himself in his cell, using the straps of his hammock. Tourists often feel anxious and depressed when visiting this cell, even when they are unaware of the story of Carter's suicide.

Another strange phenomenon occurs in one of the dark cells where prisoners were confined for long periods in total darkness and silence. It seems a remarkable coincidence that light globes blow when visitors enter one of these cells.

It is not only the buildings at Port Arthur that have the reputation of being haunted. About a kilometre off shore is the desolate, wind swept Isle of the Dead. From 1830 to 1877 it was the cemetery for the convict settlement. 1769 prisoners are buried in mass graves on the lower slopes of the island and 180 free people are buried in individual plots higher up the slope.

It was the custom to use one of the convicts as a resident gravedigger. Mark Jeffrey, Irish and short tempered and serving a sentence for manslaughter, lived in a small hut on the island. He was brought over to the mainland on Saturday night to attend the Church service on Sunday, then returned to the island on Monday.

One morning mid week a signal fire was spotted and when the authorities sent a boat over to investigate they found Jeffrey in a distressed condition, begging to be taken off the island. He related how on the previous night his hut had been shaken and rocked by an invisible force and a fiery red glow had lit up the walls and surrounding ground. According to Jeffrey when he went to investigate he was confronted by His Satanic Majesty, eyes smouldering, horns erect and encircled by sulphurous smoke. Jeffrey was diagnosed as becoming "unhinged by crime and suffering".

Even on bright sunny days, many modern visitors to the Isle say they feel an oppressive atmosphere surrounding them. With over 2000 bodies buried below, many of them tortured and oppressed by their exile to the ends of the earth, it is easy to believe that some unhappy spirits haunt this remote spot.