xenith | View of Port Arthur

Another new post card. On the back is a short letter dated "21-9-08". The image on the front is rather interesting though.

Yes, it's a view of the church at Port Arthur, possibly the most common image found on Tasmanian postcards, even more than Mt Wellington. It's one of those images that's you see too often and it doesn't change, so you don't even pause to look at it. *yawn* Just flick to the next one.

So what made me buy this?

I did pause and look at it, and I saw this in the background.

That's the hospital, and there on the left of the church tower, behind the bushes, is what looks like the roof to the penitentiary.

You see, the usual image of the penitentiary and hospital is this:

Taken from Wikipedia, license/creator information is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PortArthurPenitentiary.jpg.

The penitentiary (think dormitory, mess hall etc) is the long building at the front and the hospital is at the back, up on the hill by itself. Lacking roofs, and just about everything else. Both buildings, along with almost every other building on the site, were destroyed by bushfires in the 1890s.

Close-up of hospital.
From Let's Talk About Tasman Peninsula & Port Arthur, Tasmanian Visitor Corporation: The church was gutted by fire in 1884 (seven years after the site closed). The penitentiary was destroyed by fire in 1897. The hospital was "gutted by fire in 1895 soon after the Roman Catholic Church had bought it and modified it for use as a boys college. The Church collected insurance and started again, but three years later it was again burnt out."

Also interesting that the card is titled "Port Arthur", as the town was known officially as Carnavon from sometimesoonaftertthesiteclosed to the 1930s.

So I guess the photo was taken between 1884 & 1897. Curious, because I've been looking for some 19th C photos of Port Arthur for a while. I didn't really expect to find one on the front of postcard dated 1908 :)