Visit Second Convict Era Prison, Norfolk Island

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It is quiet today but inthe second era of convicts on Norfolk 1825-55 this was a prison site for the worst convicts who were brutally treated. Archaeological digs by the Australian National University and the well documented convict system allowed researchers to piece together the history of this phase. Their work resulted in Kingston, Arthur’s Vale Historic Area (KAVHA) being made a World Heritage site in 2010. Like Port Arthur on Van Diemen’s Land, Norfolk was reserved for the “worse of the worst “prisoners which usually meant they had been convicted twice of a crime. The crimes themselves were not especially heinous or bad and 88% had committed non-violent crimes against property. Many were kept in leg irons and chained together, but to where could they escape? They worked in the mill and building the roads and prisons and officers houses. The convicts built the Quality Row houses for the officers, the hospital, and the barracks for the troops, the store rooms, the Commissariat Store and the new model prison of the 1840s etc. The whole site is of world importance as it exemplifies the British Empire convict system on the early 1800s. It is also infamous for its inhumanity and the degrading way of treating convicts. The Federal Government started restoring and preserving this area in 1973.

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