Citation
Point Puer lads : Tried and transported, the Point Puer lads and their prison, 1833-1849: Peter H. MacFie, Robin Maclachlan, Malcolm H. Mathias. State Computer Centre, Moorabbin, Vic, 1987
Abstract
An appraisal of the data from the Point Puer juvenile prison on the Tasman Peninsula, based on an early database developed on detail then available on the Point Puer boys.
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Excerpt
Transport of convicts to Tasmania started with European settlement in 1803 and lasted until 1853. A unique feature of this period was the establishment of a boys’ prison in Van Diemen’s Land, as Tasmania was then called. Clothed in tanned sheep-skins and boots made by themselves (but with no socks), the teenage prisoners aroused conflicting responses both then and now.
From its inception in 1834 to its closure in 1849, Point Puer on the Tasman Peninsula was the only juvenile penal station outside Britain in the British Empire. On a wind-swept point opposite Port Arthur, the adult prison started in 1830, Point Puer and its parent settlement functioned as “sawing stations”. The heavily forested peninsula provided sawn timber for government projects in the south of the island.
The total prisoner population to pass through Point Puer was approximately 3,500. Most lads were from 15 to 17 years old, a smaller number were under 15 and a very few were 12 and under. The population rose from 161 youths in 1834, 473 in 1838 to 800 in 1842, the peak year. After 1843, the numbers lessened as ideas on prison reform changed. On closure in 1849, those remaining were transferred to Cascades (now Koonya), an adult prison on the northern side of Tasman Peninsula. Teenagers considered un-reformable were transferred to the adult prison at Port Arthur or to the Coal Mines, also on the Tasman Peninsula.
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Index
The indexed words are as below.
Agar, Jon
alcohol
arithmetic
Arthur, Lt.Gov. George
assignment
backgrounds
bakehouse
bakers
Beattie, J.W.
bedding
beds
blacksmiths
blankets
boat-builders
bookbinders
books
Booth, Charles O’Hara
boots
Boys’ Barracks
bread
Bread & Water
brickmakers
Brown, ?
bullocks
Bundock, ?
Burn, David
Burton, Fiona
bushrangers
cabbages
Cameron, Archibald
Campbell, George
caps
carpenters
Cascades
Catechist’s Quarters
catechists
cells
Champ, William
chapel
Chaplain’s Quarters
Church of England
Clarke, Marcus
clothing
Coal Mines (Tasman Peninsula)
Computing in History Project.
constables
cookhouse
cooks
coopering
corporal punishment
cows
crowning the overseers
discipline
Divine Service
dobbing
dogs
Dunalley
Eaglehawk Neck
East Bay Neck
Exempt Room
fagging system
farming
flour
food
For the Term of His Natural Life
Franklin, Sir John
Gaol
Gaol Superintendent’s House
gardening,
gardens
gruel
hammocks
hard labour in chains
hated stain
health
houses
Hoy, David
Instructions to Military
jackets
jetty
Johnson, Helen
Kirby, ?
Koonya
labouring tasks
Lancastrian system
LaPlace, Captain Cyrille
Lempriere, Thomas James
library
livestock,
Logan, William
MacFie, Peter
Manton, John
maps
Forestier’s Peninsula
Point Puer
Tasman Peninsula
Mayhew, Henry
McGine, Hugh
McLachlan, Robin
meat
Melville, Francis (Captain)
Military Guard House
Millbank
monitors
Montgomery, John
nailers
Nesbitt, Alexander
New Town Farm Hiring Depot
offences
orchards
overseers
parents living
Parkhurst Prison
play
Point Puer
Point Puer Lads
population
Port Arthur Conservation Project
Port Arthur Penal Settlement
potatoes
poultry
prayers
Prisoners’ Barracks Hobart
pudding
punishment grades
punishments
muster ground duty
Queen’s Orphanage
raisins
reading
reading ability
relatives transported
religion
religious devotions
Religious Tract Society London
Ross
Ross, James
Safety Cove
salt
sawing stations
sawpits
sawyers
school
Schooling
scurvy
security
Semaphore
Sentences
sheep skin
shingle splitters
shipbuilding
ships
Artemise
Elphinstone
Francis Charlotte
John Barry
Minerva
shirts
shoemakers
Sickbay
Silent Apartments
singing
Smith, ?
soap
socks
soil
soldiers
solitary confinement
Solitary Confinement Cells
soup
Sparks, Henry
stone cutters
sugar
Superintendent’s Quarters
swearing
swimming
tailors
tea
teachers
The Point Puer Database
theft
timber
tobacco
tools
trade training
trousers
turnips
vegetable gardens
vegetables
waistcoats
water supply
Watson, John
West, John
whips
windless
Workshops