Point Puer

Point Puer

The Convict Establishment for Boys  at Port Arthur, Tasmania

The small peninsula of Point Puer is situated across the bay from the Port Arthur penal settlement. Today little trace remains of the Point Puer buildings, but between 1834 and 1849 the site housed hundreds of convict boys.

Until 1823, when the Bellerophon was fitted out and designated as a hulk for the use of boys sentenced to transportation, young convicts had been held in prison hulks alongside adult prisoners. Even after that date some boys remained on the same hulks, and all were sent out on the same transport ships as the men and were often thoroughly corrupted by the time they arrived in Australia. The boys who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land while the assignment system was in force were difficult to assign, partly due to their small stature. The settlers would not take the boys, even though to do so would cost them less, as most would have been unable to carry out the hard work expected of them. As a result the number of unassigned boys at the Hobart Depot continued to rise and cause problems for the authorities. The Assignment board considered the situation to be very unsatisfactory and asked the Colony’s Executive Council to transmit their concerns to the Lieutenant Governor.

In November 1833 the Executive Council in Van Diemen’s Land considered the problem of the convict boys who were being mixed with the adult prisoners, and recommended the formation of a separate boys’ station at Slopen Main. This site was chosen as the Government already had some buildings there, including a barn that could, at no very great expense, be converted into Barracks for the boys. Governor Arthur supported the idea of separating the boys from the adult prisoners and approved the Assignment Board’s request. He instructed the Commandant of Port Arthur, Charles O’Hara Booth, who would be responsible for the governance of the boys’ barracks, to organise the suggested site. However a decision had already been made to open a coal mine a few miles from Slopen Main, using as labour some of the worst of the convicts from Port Arthur, therefore Booth would not approve the chosen site. Instead he submitted an alternative proposal for a boys’ station on a promontory across the bay from Port Arthur. He recorded in his Journal that the proximity to Port Arthur would “allow the boys [to] be managed much better, more securely, and with less expense.” By the 8^th December 1833 Booth had received Lieutenant Governor George Arthur’s approval for his alternative site. On the 24^th December, he wrote to advise Arthur that he had put up a hut to house about 70 boys on the site he had selected “on the point at the entrance of the Settlement Bay near the Island, which I trust you will approve of, and where they will be perfectly safe from the intercourse with the present Establishment.”

The station became known as Point Puer. The offences for which the Point Puer boys were transported for may seem trivial to us today, and their punishments very severe, but they reflect the attitudes of the time.

The first superintendent at Point Puer would appear to be an unlikely choice. He was John Montgomery who was retiring from the 63^rd Regiment. Lieutenant Governor Arthur recorded that he “has been exceedingly addicted to drinking and it has brought him almost to utter ruin. It has however been represented to me that he has been led to see the destructive consequences of such a course, and that with the exception of this one vicious propensity he is an exceedingly useful and well-conducted person, having by his own exemplary conduct raised himself from the ranks to hold a Commission in His Majesty’s Service. Under these circumstances I have consented to give him a trial at Port Arthur where he will be excluded from the strong temptation to which he has already sacrificed so much”. Captain Booth was requested to report on Montgomery after a few months. [1]

The first 68 boys for Point Puer arrived at Port Arthur on the Tamar on 10^th January 1834. On the following day Booth recorded in his diary, “in the afternoon landed the Boys at their appointed Station, and gave them over to the Superintendence of Mr Montgomery, late Adjutant, 63^rd Regiment, - read them a lecture – reprimanded the Miscreants who took the liberty with my Case of vinous ‘Fluid’ . The mode adopted by the Government in withdrawing these little Urchins from bad company and example – will without any doubt, if proper attention is paid to their Morals – be the means of bringing many – if not all – into the right path again.”

In his official report Booth wrote that, “I found a number of them in a perfectly senseless state of intoxication having had access to a Case of Wine.” He also wrote, “They commence and close their day with Public prayer – attend School morning and evening and are also employed for certain hours – clearing the ground in the vicinity of their new abode, until they become a little more organised – after which I purpose having them instructed in trades of different kinds.”

On the 8^th February 1834 Lieutenant Governor Arthur wrote to the Colonial Under-Secretary.

You are aware that by the last two or three vessels a most unusual number of boys were sent out; it is utterly impossible to imagine a more corrupt fraternity of little felons – on their landing I examined them closely and collected much of their history from themselves – some, it appeared, had been trained in a vicious course from having been thrown upon the world totally destitute, others, have become so from the tutorage of dissolute parents – and others have been the agents of dexterous old thieves about London – but all are the objects of compassion; to assign them is impossible and I therefore caused about 100 of them to be moved to Tasman Peninsula, but to be there kept apart and quite distinct from the convicts under sentence. – To have formed altogether another Establishment would have been attended with additional expense, and I hope, therefore, the Secretary of State will be disposed to approve of the measure.

I desired my Private Secretary to write to the Command and last week, and enquire how they were going on, - his answer you will perceive is satisfactory – most fortunately the Commandant is a most admirable person for such a situation – he is kind and humane – active and most determined. – You cannot imagine the relief it is to me to have had it in my power to abandon Macquarie Harbour – it was so difficult to access and so entirely out of my immediate control as to be always a source of anxiety whereas Tasman’s Peninsula I have quite “at hand”.

Despite the fact that there was no water to be found on the site and it had to be brought from Port Arthur, Captain Booth considered that the advantages of the Point Puer site outweighed the disadvantages, surrounded as it was on two sides by sea, and at its far end by sixty foot high cliffs which fell steeply into the sea, where treacherous currents swirled around the point. It was narrow enough across to have a demarcation line, which was patrolled by soldiers. A formidable place and it is reported that only three boys managed to make a successful escape from the site, although many other escape attempts were made.

It would appear that the Lieutenant Governor’s faith in John Montgomery was well placed, as on the 11^th August 1834 Booth praised him as a “most efficient Superintendent (and who is comporting himself in every manner most satisfactory) to remain in that capacity.” [2]

On arrival at Point Puer the boys were first employed in the labouring gang, breaking up new ground, cultivating the garden, felling and carrying timber, cooking or cleaning the barracks. Only after spending some time at this type of labour would they begin their training in a trade.

In November 1834, at the request of Governor Arthur, James Backhouse, a strict Quaker, and his friend George Washington Walker, visited the penal establishments on the Tasman Peninsula. It was their third visit to the area. Writing about his visit to Point Puer Backhouse says -

An interesting addition has lately been made to this Settlement, in an establishment for convict boys, on a point of land, now called Point Puer, access from which to the main land is cut off by a military guard. One hundred and fifty-seven Boys who have been rescued by the strong arm of the law from a course of moral delinquency, in which they were training, and which had already rendered them a pest to society, are now placed under restraint and coercive labour as a punishment; and are by these means, combined with proper attention to education, acquiring knowledge, and habits, calculated to enable them to maintain themselves by honest industry, and to make them useful members of the community. The restraint is irksome, but upon the whole, the boys seem pleased with the idea of being put in the way of obtaining a livelihood. – Considerable difficulty has been found, as might be expected, in raising the morals of these juvenile delinquents, from a most degraded state. [3]

James Bakehouse also refers to his visit to Point Puer in his letters. [4]

20^th 11^th mo. Accompanied by the surgeon, C. G. Casey, we visited Point Puer – the establishment for juvenile prisoners, such as formerly were confined on board the hulks on the Thames. This establishment is situated on a Point of land, distant about a mile and a half from the settlement for adult prisoners, with whom communication is effectively cut off by a military guard, stationed between Point Puer and the main. The Commandant and Surgeon usually visit the boys’ establishment daily by the medium of a boat. John Montgomery, formerly a lieutenant in the sixty-first regiment, is superintendent, and Geo. Armstrong, (one of the young men of Ireland, who separated from the Episcopal church,) catechist.  The buildings are all of recent erection: they consist of houses for the superintendent and catechist, barracks for the boys, and including workshops, kitchen, &c. The boys feel the restraint they are under to be irksome; occasionally some of them are so refractory as to be subjected to solitary confinement, yet, upon the whole, they seem pleased with the idea of being put into the way of obtaining an honest livelihood. In visiting the cells this morning, with the surgeon, who every morning inspects each cell, and inquires into the state of health of the delinquent occupying it, I noticed a few boys suffering the punishment of solitary confinement, having been transferred to Port Arthur for that purpose. A few cells are erecting at Point Puer, to obviate the necessity of sending boys off the establishment to be punished. A few boys are in the hospital, chiefly on account of slight diseases, the effect of the late cold, and wet weather. Two hours a day are devoted to education; the rest of the time is spent in work, cultivating the ground, sawing timber, shoe and nail-making, carpentry, and tailoring. A considerable piece of ground has been broken up and planted with potatoes, at Point Puer: the soil is light, and peaty, and the crop is looking better this season, than that on the settlement garden, which is on a stronger, and for many purposes, a better soil. The boys’ barracks is so constructed as to answer as a dormitory, as well as for a dining room and school-room. The desks are all along the middle of the room; they let down when not wanted, and when required for a table are brought to a level, by bringing out the brackets under the wedge-shaped attachments to the under-sides of the leaves. The boys sleep in hammocks; which are suspended on hooks fixed in beams along the wall, and in others that fit into notches in uprights along the central part of the room, which also support shelves on which the hammocks, when rolled up, are placed; the moveable beams are then fixed as fronts to the shelves.

J. Montgomery was in Hobart-town. His wife kindly refreshed us with a cup of coffee, after we had had a religious interview with the boys, and the persons who instruct and have the charge of them. From Point Puer we saw a whale sporting in the bay; this is not an uncommon sight here.

Captain Booth added an annex to the report of Backhouse and Walker, which tells us a little more about the daily life of the boys at Point Puer.

Up at Sunrise – fold Hammocks and Blankets – they then wash and clean themselves for the Superintendent’s inspection, immediately afterwards all attend prayers, at the conclusion of which they all turned out to Field labour until Breakfast hour (8 o’clock) – at 9 o’clock they are mustered out to their respective Trades and continue at such until Dinner hour (1 o’clock) – at 2 o’clock they are again mustered to their Trades and remain so employed till 5 o’clock when all labour ceases for the day – Supper at 6 o’clock. At ½” past 6 the School commences, and continues until 8, when the Evening prayers are read, immediately after, every Hammock is slung and the roll called and the Boys inspected by the Superintendent.

The whole of the Boys are strictly examined as to cleanliness, previous to each Muster, whether for Meals, School, or Labour and any neglect by them to this essential point is reported to the Commandant, on his daily visit.

Each Boy is furnished with One Tin Plate, One Tin Pannican, One Knife, Fork, and Spoon which are deposited in a Box and labelled according to the Messes the boys belong.

          As we see from Backhouse’s letters and Journal as well as a place of punishment Point Puer was intended to be a means of training the boys in trades that would enable them to find employment after their release, and hopefully, make them useful members of the colony that was to be their new home. The returns at the end of 1834 show that of the 161 boys there at the time, 16 were training as shoemakers, 12 as carpenters, 10 as tailors, 8 as sawyers and 4 as blacksmiths. The remainder worked as labourers. The tailoring shop at Point Puer made the Sheep-skin clothing worn by the boys at the time.

          By the 30^th June 1835 there were 243 boys at Point Puer where they were undergoing training in blacksmithing, shoemaking, sawing, tailoring and carpentry.

          In March 1836 James Ross, a journalist and publisher, (he began publishing the Hobart Town Courier in 1825 and the Hobart Town Almanack in 1829), visited Point Puer. In summarising his impressions he wrote,

“On the whole I consider this establishment on of the greatest memorials that Colonel Arthur has left behind him, and not only will the boys themselves, who are thus taught useful trades, (and it is to be hoped been saved from a career of crime and perdition), but the colony at large, have reason to be thankful for the establishment at Point Puer.” [5]

          The Gaols Act of 1835 centralised penal policy, empowering the Home Secretary, Lord John Russell, to take positive action relating to the management of young offenders. He began negotiating a plan that would separate young male convicts on the hulks, in the convict transports, and in Van Diemen’s Land. In 1836 he commissioned the convict ship Frances Charlotte to transport 140 boys under the supervision of Alexander Nisbet MD RN, a humane and trusted surgeon-superintendent, well experienced in convict transportation. He had made his first voyage on the convict ship Minerva in 1824. This was followed by the Grenada in 1827, the Hooghley in 1828, the Asia in 1830, before embarking on the Frances Charlotte in 1837. He made two more voyages after this, on the Earl Grey in 1838, and the Mangles in 1840.

          On receiving advice that more boy convicts were being sent out, the Commander of the Royal Engineers, who was now in charge of new buildings for the Convict Service, prepared plans for a new barracks to hold 170 boys. O’Hara Booth had proposed one for 400-500 boys, but the Commander disagreed with this as he thought that mixing 400-500 boy together was unlikely to improve their conduct or reform them.

          In March 1837 Sir John Franklin, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land the previous year, and his wife Lady Jane visited Port Arthur and Point Puer. There were 214 boys living there at the time and Sir John and his wife saw the boys going about their assigned tasks and working at their various trades. Lady Jane was approached by individual and groups of boys who asked her for various favours. The most common request being for increased rations, specifically for tea and sugar.

          In her diary Lady Jane wrote –

“One very clever and impudent little boy was spokesman for several ... and intimated they were better just now than they would be by and by because the Governor was here – now they had double pudding.”

Another, who she described as “of remarkable countenance, rather interesting and sensible” asked for a Bible, on being told that he was a good boy she promised to provide him. He then produced a list of seven other boys who also wanted Bibles. Both Booth and William Freeman, the catechist, expressed concerns about the sincerity of the boys. Even Lady Jane had her doubts and in her diary suggests they might not have been sincere.

The Frances Charlotte arrived on the 19^th May 1837 and O’Hara Booth reported that the new building would be ready for them shortly. The following month the Chaplain’s reported on the Point Puer school.

 “During the past six months an increased degree of attention has been manifested by many of the boys to their School duties in consequence of the determination expressed by the Commandant that no boy shall be recommended for assignment who has not a competent knowledge of Reading, Writing and the Simple Rules of Arithmetic.

The trades taught are such as are most likely to be useful in the new Country, and consist of Boot and Shoe makers, Carpenters, Blacksmiths, Nailors, Coopers, Bakers, Kitchen Gardeners, and Sawyers; a few are about to be put to Book binding and Turning in their different branches.” [6]

He also reported that a number of the boys had gone to Port Arthur to learn boat-building and stone-cutting. The boys did much of the stone-cutting for the Church at Port Arthur.

Also in June 1837 Dr Nisbet wrote his report on the voyage of the Frances Charlotte, which appears to have been a success, but despite this the authorities never again saw fit to send out a boys-only ship.

In May 1839 Captain Booth wrote to the Colonial Secretary regarding the corporal punishment and solitary confinement he, regrettably, had to inflict on the boys at Point Puer. He reported that “punishment is never resorted to where obedience and correctness of conduct can be achieved by reason or advice; and to state that it is scarcely possible to credit the difficulty there is, in keeping a body of Boys (500) such as those comprising the Establishment at Point Puer, in a proper state of order, from their previous habits, so naturally prone to Insolence, to break most of whom of which habits, it appears to require an unremitting perseverance, for at least a couple of years, after which bad spirit is broken they become quiet and anxious to forward themselves in their education and occupations.” [7]

During the whole of 1839, the boys at Point Puer committed 2,709 offences, 374 boys receiving corporal punishment with an average of 18 stokes each. Eighty six offenders received reprimands, in 2,187 cases the offenders were sentenced to solitary confinement, and the remainder were lodged in the separate apartments for varying periods.

In 1842 a second journalist, David Burn, visited Point Puer, and his thought on the station were published in An Excursion to Port Arthur in 1842.

At the end of June 1842 one of the overseers at Point Puer, Hugh McGuire, was murdered by two boys. Murders at Port Arthur occurred from time to time, mainly one prisoner killing another, but this would appear to be the only case reported at Point Puer. The Colonial Secretary suggested that the boys be sent to the Coal Mines and Wedge Bay, a new probation station under construction, but Booth did not agree and the boys were later sent to road gangs at Glenorchy and Picton.

In early 1843 Benjamin Horne arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from New Zealand, where he had delivered some boys from Parkhust Prison. He was there to report on the operation of the Establishment and to supervise the school. He was formerly appointed as headmaster in August 1843. Horne died of tuberculosis at Point Puer in October 1843. His report on the station and his recommendations were to influence the future growth and policies on Point Puer.

Also in 1843 Matthew Forster was appointed the first Controller-General of Convicts by Lord Stanley and took up his position in September of that year. In his report of 30^th June 1845 Forster wrote the following of Point Puer.

“Six hundred and seven Boys are at the Establishment at Point Puer, they continue to improve and have been busily employed during the last Six Months in clearing land and in preparing Timber, Bricks, Stone etc, for the New Penitentiary, the Plan and the Estimate are nearly ready for transmission to the Right Honorable The Secretary of State.”

On the 25^th October 1845 Forster reported to Eardley-Wilmot that Benjamin Horne’s recommendations on the use of only free overseers at Point Puer were being implemented and 15 free men were already there. The 5 convict overseers were to be replaced shortly. Horne had also objected to the boys having too much time for play and insufficient for instruction and labour. This had been rectified and the only play time allowed was in the meal hours. The boys were working seven and a half hours daily, excluding time for musters and there were two and a half hours of instruction each day plus two Sunday church services and a Sunday school. Another of the things Horne had objected to was the form of the school and recommended two schoolmasters and extra books were needed. Forster suggested that the Secretary of State be approached for permission to implement these recommendations.

          There were at this time, three classes of prisoners at Point Puer. The “general class from which the boys are alone eligible for indulgence; the confined class, and the punishment class; and in these classes the boys are again classed in respect to age and size, whilst the determinedly wicked are kept separate from each other and from the rest.” Only 27 boys had been whipped in the year to 30^th September 1845, the average number of stripes being 34. The average number of boys at the station in 1845 was 604.

          Eardley-Wilmot wrote to the Secretary of State a few days later informing him that he had approved a start being made on the new boys’ penitentiary at Safety Cove because of the poor state of the buildings at Point Puer. He set out the reasons for the selection of Safety Cove as the site for the new station and requested formal approval. The appointment of the two schoolmasters suggested by Horne was recommended. [8]

          It was found necessary, in view of the size of the penitentiary to be constructed at Safety Cove, to appoint a professional builder as Clerk of Works for the project, the boys doing the actual construction under his supervision. The estimate of the cost of the building was just over £2,500 and Mr Willicombe, the overseer at the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart Town was appointed as Clerk of Works.

          Charles Joseph LaTrobe arrived in Van Dieman’s Land in October 1847 to replace Lieutenant Governor Eardley-Wilmot who had been dismissed for inefficiency, particularly with his management of the probation system. During the same month Dr John S. Hampton, the new Comptroller-General of Convicts, also arrived and the two men began a series of inspections of all the convict stations in the colony.

          In his report of May 1847 Hampton wrote that the number of boys at Point Puer was decreasing so rapidly that the station would have to be broken up in two years’ time. He also reported that the penitentiary at Safety Cove was progressing “so very slowing that I fear it will not, under existing circumstances, become available for the purpose intended, until the reduction in number of Boys renders a change from the old buildings of little consequence, however the Safety Cove Penitentiary can even then be advantageously used for adults.” [9]

          In his report following the inspection at Point Puer LaTrope wrote, “The Station is badly supplied with Water, a small quantity is caught from the roofs, but the general consumption is brought from Port Arthur, and in this duty convict boatmen from that station are necessarily employed: this is objectionable. One of the Catechists, a protestant, takes charge of the day school and has under him, as assistants, two paid boys. Eight others are also selected to act as monitors etc. The accommodation for the Officers consists of weather boarded buildings with the exception of quarters for six or seven which are of brick and tolerably substantial.”

          In November 1847 Hampton wrote to Lieutenant Governor Sir William Denison about the problems being experienced with the Point Puer boys.

“Convict boys who have become proficient in useful trades, experience no difficulty in obtaining employment on their discharge from Point Puer, but many others remain for long periods in the hands of the Government art the depot near Hobart Town, and several have recently become free by servitude while thus situated.”

          He went on to suggest implementing a proposal by Matthew Forster, made in October 1845, that the Lieutenant Governor should be empowered to grant conditional pardons to boys on the “expiration of half the periods of their sentences, and to forward them at the public expense to one of the neighbouring colonies.” He continued, “the position of the Point Puer boys is altogether different from that of adult convicts; many of them being retained under the restraint of severe discipline at the station until half or two-thirds of their sentences expire, are thereby prevented obtaining in the usual time the progressive steps of indulgence, and are in every respect in a much worse penal condition than adults, whilst their ages and general condition render it of great importance that they should be placed in as favourable circumstances as possible on discharge from the control of the Government.” [10]

          In June 1848 the Comptroller-General wrote to the Lieutenant-Governor concerning Port Arthur and Point Puer.

“In 1833 Captain Booth of the 21^st Regt. Assumed the Office of Commandant, and in the same year Mr Carte, the present Superintendent was appointed, with a small rate of Salary, to perform the duties previously entrusted to a convict. In 1840 Captain Booth retired from the Army, and was appointed Civil Commandant, with a salary of £300 per annum, subsequently augmented fo £500; and in 1844, he was succeeded by Mr Champ, the present commandant, with the same amount of salary; the number of Convicts then being 1,200 at Port Arthur, and 700 at Point Per, a detached Station which had been formed for Boys.

The increase in the Strength of these Establishments rendered it necessary in 1843 to obtain the Services of an additional Magistrate, who was stationed at Port Arthur to assist the Commandant and also recently, to act as Visiting Magistrate for the Cascades Station, on the North side of the Peninsula.

Previous to the introduction of the Probation System, the Commandant was invested with the sole charge of Tasman’s Peninsula; but after the formation of the Probation Stations, his duty was restricted to the supervision of Port Arthur, the Establishment for Boys at Point Puer; the Constables and the Signal-men, with instructions to make visits of inspection at the Probation Stations, but to refrain from any direct interference with the internal arrangements and discipline of these Stations.

Establishments such as Port Arthur and Point Puer, which have gradually increased in importance, and the requirements of which have been provided for as they arose, are generally in an anomalous condition, without that System, method, and adaptation of arrangements to be found in Institutions created at once for any definite purpose. In fact the routine of duty at Port Arthur, and Point Puer, is carried on chiefly under what may be regarded, more as traditional, than written regulations; rendering it difficult to manage and nearly impossible to improve the existing arrangements.

It is therefore, my opinion, very desirable to sweep away the cumbrous and antiquated Establishment of Officers, and System of management, at Port Arthur; and reorganise the whole plan and Scale, suited to the general State of the Convict service in this Colony, and in accordance with the arrangements at the other Stations on Tasman’s Peninsula; so as to establish one uniform system throughout the Department; and the reductions now in progress appear to me to afford a perculiarly eligible opportunity for carrying out the requisite changes, as in a few months from this date, the number of Convicts at Port Arthur will be reduced to 350, and a short time afterwards the Point Puer Establishment will be broken up.” [11]

          Over the years the number of convicts transport began to decline, and as far as boy convicts were concerned their numbers began to decrease after Parkhurst Prison, on the Isle of Wight, was opened. On the 1^st March 1849, the last 162 boys at Point Puer were transferred to the work station at Cascades in Hobart Town and the Prison at Point Puer was closed.

In July 1849 the Comptroller-General reported the breaking up of the boys’ station at Point Puer.