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Of all the terrifying places in the world, one of the most terrifying is prison. To be confined, locked away from friends and family, is enough to drive anyone crazy. But over a hundred years ago, there were places that not only locked people up, but tortured them in many inhumane ways. Today we visit one of these places that was once one of the most horrifying penitentiaries in the world.
And because of this, it's also said to be one of the most haunted. Welcome to Destination Terror, your passport to the scariest places in the world. From haunted hotels to locations of unexplained creature sightings, we will travel to places that will provide excitement, adventure and horror. Today we're discussing Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia, which is said to be the most haunted place in Australia.
So if you're into travel and all things scary, listen close, and you might just discover your next exciting adventure destination. But hopefully, not your final destination. Destination Terror is an EerieCast original podcast hosted by me, Carmen Carrion.
If you would like to send us a suggestion or submit a story with your own experience, you can email them to [email protected] or follow me on Twitter @CarmenCarian. If you enjoy the show, please follow and rate Destination Terror on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to help us grow. Also, check out eeriecast.com for more scary podcasts, such as Tales from the Break Room, featuring allegedly true and terrifying stories that happened on the job.
Every time Lauren stepped on a plane to fly to the location of her next ghost hunt adventure, she could barely contain her excitement. She had traveled all over the world in the last 10 years writing about her adventures. Writing was her favorite way of sharing her experiences. She could start a YouTube channel or a podcast, but she preferred the old-fashioned way of documentation. It seemed more personal and long-lasting.
She believed that if the world lost the ability to use electronics, they could still read books. She also preferred the old way of ghost hunting, without fancy equipment. All she took was her phone, which she used for pictures, notes, and recordings. She wasn't an actual paranormal investigator. She chased the history of the ghosts, and hoped that one day she may actually see one.
During her travels, she had developed a special enthusiasm for cemeteries, especially the older ones, that were rumored to be haunted. Of course, she believed that most cemeteries probably had their share of ghosts. Cemeteries were rich with both history and mysteries. She had been to the Paris Catacombs in France, the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, the Heiliger Sand in Germany, and the Okinoyan Cemetery in Japan.
They were all fascinatingly creepy, and she had learned so many unique things about the history and the people of each location. She had been to many cemeteries in the States as well, but she had lost count as to how many. The Isle of the Dead at the Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania, Australia was unique though. It was only two and a half acres in size, yet held over 1,000 bodies in the graves there, many of which were prisoners of Port Arthur back in the 1800s.
Lauren wasn't sure why, but this place was different. It felt like she had been waiting to visit this one location her whole life, and she had no clue why. She wondered if it was because she was born in Australia. In 1986, her mother was a young actress who caught a break while visiting Sydney, Australia, with her schoolmates. She said she hadn't went there looking for work, but when she heard about an audition for a major movie there, she signed up.
She got a part and even though it was a small one, she stayed there for three months. That's where she met Lauren's dad. He worked on the set of the movie. She fell head over heels in love with him and after the film was finished shooting in Sydney, she convinced him to return to the States with her. Once in the States, it was hard for him to adapt and he quickly became homesick and eventually left, leaving her mother with a broken heart and a baby she didn't yet know she was carrying.
Her mother said she tried to contact him and had even flown back to Sydney, but could find no trace of him. It was as if he had never existed. The only thing she knew was that he was born and raised on the island of Tasmania. She left Australia and went back to the States, but not before giving birth to her daughter alone. Even though Lauren had never seen him, she had one picture of him that her mom had given her.
She had carried it in her wallet in hopes that if she memorized his face, maybe she'd recognize him, if she were to see him somewhere out there in the world. Lauren had traveled to so many places, but she seemed to have avoided Australia. And she thought maybe this was the reason. She wasn't ready to deal with the mystery of who her father was and what had happened to him, even though she knew that someday she would want to.
When she first discovered the Isle of the Dead while doing some research online, she knew immediately that she would go there. It was as if it was her destiny, even if it meant that she may have to face some of the unknown elements of her own lineage. While planning the trip, she became more and more intrigued with the history of the island. She began to wonder, for the first time, who her father really was. And would she see any sign of him when she returned to the place where he was born and raised?
She landed at Hobart Airport in Tasmania on a cool summer day in February 2023. It didn't feel like summer, even though the weather was much nicer than February in New York. She then traveled by taxi from Hobart to Port Arthur, where she had reserved a villa for a week. It was in walking distance to the Port Arthur Historical Site. The first evening there she explored a little, but then rested.
The flight had been a long one and required some mandatory sleep in order to enjoy the next several days. After a long night's sleep, the next day, her first official day on the island, she went on a full day guided tour of Port Arthur. It took most of the day to cover the former convict site and all of its history, but it was worth it. She had booked the first tour of the day and it started at 10 a.m. She hadn't expected it to be so large. There were almost 30 people in her group.
They were led through the government gardens which were still beautiful even after all these years. It was here that she noticed a young man, probably in his mid-twenties, watching their group from under the shade of a large tree. He seemed strangely familiar. The dockyard was next, and it was especially interesting. But Lauren was distracted again when she saw that young man standing back away from the group, just watching.
This time it was a little unnerving because she got the feeling that his eyes were on her and her alone. She looked away quickly and tried to focus on the tour guide. She only looked back once as they headed towards the penitentiary and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't see him. Walking through the shell of the old penitentiary, she snapped many amazing pictures and got lost in the history of the place.
She got chills thinking about the inhumane ways that many had once suffered inside these walls. At the end of the tour, and the part that Lauren had been most looking forward to, was a cruise to the Isle of the Dead. But to her disappointment, it was only a pass-by. She hadn't realized that if she wanted to tour the island, she had to book that tour separately.
That evening when she returned to the villa, she looked up the company that ran the Dead Isle tours and called them. But they were booked, not just for the next day, but for the entire month. The island cemetery had been her main reason for this trip. How could she have overlooked this one crucial detail? Suddenly an idea came to her. It would be risky but so worth it if she could make it happen. She could rent a boat or hire someone to take her to the island.
Lauren slept well that night, sure that her plan would work, and if it did, she could explore the cemetery alone, without a guide and all the rules. The only bad part to her plan was that it could only be carried out after dark. The next day she visited three boat rental locations, before she finally found one that had a small polycraft boat, but it was rented out until the end of the day.
The man running the place had to be convinced with cash to rent the boat after hours. She told him that she wanted to take night pictures for her book. So after some begging and price negotiating, she reserved the boat and promised to return right before closing time. She spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and taking more pictures of Port Arthur. She wondered if her dad had ever been there. It'd be nice to know if she were standing in the same place that he once had.
Lauren then remembered the strange man from yesterday and realized then that he seemed familiar because he reminded her of her dad, or at least he favored the only picture she had of him. When Lauren returned to the rental place, the owner was getting ready to close up, but had the boat ready for her. After a brief instruction on how to operate the craft, he left her to it.
Lauren had driven a boat many times, as she spent many summers with her parents at Sandy Hook Bay, where they did a lot of boating. It was five o'clock when she pulled the boat out into the harbor. It wouldn't be dark for three more hours. To kill time, she cruised around the shoreline and snapped pictures. It also gave her time to write down some ideas for her book.
As the sun finally began to set, she slowly turned the boat towards the Isle of the Dead, but waited until it was completely dark to approach the tiny island. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Whether you're selling a little or a lot.
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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America.
because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID True Crime Event, premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR. One of Australia's most terrifying locations is on a peninsula in Tasmania's southeast. Port Arthur, which was constructed in the 19th century, was the last line in penal camps.
A British judiciary outpost that is more than 4,000 miles from the center of the Empire. Thousands of prisoners were taken south through rough seas, to this jail that was renowned for its hardships, including working class men, destitute women from rural places, and children who had committed some small infractions. Convicts were used here to construct enormous ships that sailed the globe.
It was in this prison where the idealistic notion of criminal justice reform gave rise to a separate facility, notorious for its use of psychological torture. Port Arthur also played host to separate prison, an infamous institution where physical punishment was replaced by psychological discipline. Prisoners were assigned numbers, required to cover their faces when around one another, and frequently went for extended periods of time without light or sound.
It makes sense that an asylum was located nearby, and that the Island of the Dead, a nearby island, functioned as a prison cemetery for more than a thousand souls. Separate prison was not regarded as cruel in its day. Rather, people thought it to be enlightened. The panopticon, a circular prison built with cells arranged radially, so that all inmates could be watched at once by a single watchman, was a concept developed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
and served as the basis for the institution's architecture. This led to the construction of Separate Prison, as a cross-shaped structure, allowing watchmen at the heart to sight down each wing. At Separate Prison, it was believed that corporal punishment was ineffective, because it merely served to make victims more determined, rather than to rehabilitate them.
Instead, forced social, visual, and auditory isolation was used to maintain order among the prisoners. The facility employed the "silent system," which required all detainees to maintain silence at all times, and to wear hoods or masks when they were outside of their cells. While the intention was to give inmates time to consider their crimes, the reality was much more sinister. Many inmates reportedly developed mental illnesses from the seclusion,
while others are said to have committed the capital offense of murder in order to escape incarceration via the death penalty. All prisoners who died at Port Arthur were sent to the Isle of the Dead. Reportedly, 1,646 bodies are buried on the tiny landmass. Of that number, only 180 graves, those of prison staff and military personnel, are marked.
The Port Arthur Historic Site, located in Tasmania, Australia, serves as a significant example of a colonial landscape. The remnants that can still be seen in Australia today are primarily connected to its history as a penal colony and include buildings that are still standing, shorelines, cemeteries, exercise yards and cells. Moreover, Port Arthur is believed to be home to ghostly apparitions
and surroundings that are less obvious remnants of its former inhabitants. It is frequently cited as Australia's most haunted location. Is a trip to Port Arthur in Australia worthwhile? Without a doubt, the answer is yes. One of Australia's most significant historical sites, Port Arthur is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a sordid past that draws visitors with tales of the horrors of early convict camps.
Because of its historical significance and picturesque location, Port Arthur in Tasmania is a popular tourist destination. Port Arthur's allure is heightened by its breathtaking setting on the untamed and breathtaking Tasman Peninsula. The Port Arthur complex, which was created in the 1830s from a modest wood station in southeast Tasmania, is a location of genuine contradiction.
A grim history of the terrible torture of the most seasoned of British convicts, who arrived there in the middle of the 19th century, replaces the breathtaking landscapes and viewpoints of one of the last surviving untamed borders in the world. Convicts were forced to cut trees as part of a hard labor camp that stayed loyal to its origins as a forestry nation. But in 1848, the emphasis evolved to include additional psychological punishment.
Between 1853 and 1855, it was enlarged and swiveled to focus on Bentham's Panopticon philosophy. While touring the Port Arthur historical site, you'll hear the incredible tales of Martin Cash, who escaped in 1842, and George "Billy" Hunt, who attempted to flee while wearing a kangaroo hide, but was shot as the starving guards tried to supplement their meager rations. The area was known as the Inescapable Prison.
because escape attempts were rare, but occasionally successful. To escape from Port Arthur, convicts had to pass across a narrow isthmus known as the Neck. This was guarded heavily by ferocious dogs and surveyed by stationed military personnel. A convict named Billy Hunt disguised himself as a kangaroo in the hope of making it through the Neck. The plan was working brilliantly until one of the troopers decided to use the kangaroo as target practice.
Billy was then forced to reveal his true identity. In 1840, Robert Young, a 20-year-old, was serving in Port Arthur with the King's Own Light Infantry. His responsibility was to provide security whenever prisoners were at work or going from one location to another. One March evening, he sailed alongside a whale boat, carrying a steerman, four prisoners, and a doctor, who was going to Point Pure to see a sick youngster.
Armed with his musket and wearing his military greatcoat, Private Young took a position at the boat's bow. Although he had complained of the cold and feeling ill, he stayed with the boat when the doctor went ashore and declined the Stearman's invitation to come and warm himself by the fire. By the time the boat returned to the main settlement, it was very dark. The doctor alighted on the jetty, followed by Private Young. Suddenly there was a loud scream and a splash, perhaps missing his footing in the dark.
Robert Young had fallen into the freezing waters of Mason Cove. To try to save him, a member of the prison crew dove in and dove under the jetty, but there was no sign of Young Robert. Another man followed after taking off his clothing. After 10 minutes of desperate looking, his lifeless corpse was finally discovered, recovered with a boat hook, and carried to the hospital where he was declared dead. Henry Singleton arrived on Norfolk Island in 1851.
sentenced to 14 years for stealing shirts. He was a bad character, constantly in trouble for refusing to work, being dirty and disobedient, talking and having money improperly in his possession, insubordination and using threatening language. He received many short sentences of hard labor or solitary confinement. After a brief period of freedom, he was tried again in 1860 for stealing five pigs and sentenced to four years at Port Arthur.
Free again, he then broke into a building to steal and was sent back to Port Arthur for five years. While in the separate prison, he was caught with a crowbar trying to break out with another man and received three more years of imprisonment, including a year in the separate prison with 30 days in the punishment cell. Later that same year, Henry was contemplating a solo escape.
He'd got a hold of a set of keys. Drunken warders gave them to him, so he could let them back into the prison when they were incapable. And he made his own set. But his nerve failed him, and he handed the keys in. He wasn't punished, but the warders involved were let go. By 1875, he was free with a ticket of leave. After two more offenses, larceny and a burglary that earned him 14 years imprisonment,
He disappears from the records. By then, he would have been 65 years old. While convicts were digging the foundations for the church in 1835, a Joseph Shuttleworth was brutally murdered by a fellow inmate, William Riley. What drove Riley to such a violent act? William Riley was 14 when he was transported for seven years in 1821. His record describes him as inoffensive and orderly.
His mother was in an institution, father's whereabouts unknown. From the beginning he tried to escape his new life in various ways. He refused to work, absconded, was disobedient, and increasingly drank. He was repeatedly flogged but did not mend his ways. After he was freed he continued to be arrested for being drunk and disorderly, but he was only fined or placed in stocks if he couldn't pay.
He seems more pathetic than dangerous, at least at first. He graduated to burglary and theft and kept drinking. But in 1833, Raleigh was convicted of attempted murder. Sent to Port Arthur, he was no trouble until he suddenly killed Joseph Shuttleworth with three blows to the head with a pickaxe while they were at work building the church. At his trial, William refused to speak and was led away to be hanged.
Each evening, black-cloaked guides lead historic ghost tours and relate spine-tingling stories of strange events and experiences from Port Arthur's past. What caused this young man to commit such a brutal crime? Was he somehow provoked by Shuttleworth? The murdered man also had a long record of many floggings for refusing to work, but instead of taking to drink like Riley, he had turned violent and had several convictions for fighting and assault.
Three weeks before he died, he was charged with fighting in his hut. No one else was charged. Had Shuttleworth assaulted Riley? The only clue that we have comes from Riley's own lips. As he threw down the pickaxe, he calmly said, Riley and his victim are remembered each evening at Port Arthur as the historic ghost tour visits the old church, the scene of Riley's crime. The prison's population declined.
and by the 1870s the remaining convicts were too old, unwell or deranged to constitute an efficient labor force. As a result, the prison doors were finally closed in 1877. Over 30 houses can be found in 100 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens today. The buildings eventually fell into disrepair, but in the 1970s the government provided funding for the site's preservation.
There are many people whose lives and stories are woven into Port Arthur's history. When you visit the Port Arthur Historic Site, you will follow in the footsteps of commandants, prisoners, soldiers, slaves, and shipwrights. Tasmania Gothic is embodied in Port Arthur, whether you enter the site during the day or at night. The aura of dread is almost overwhelming, as the echoes of the place's sinister past creep over the hillside.
Only guided tours led by experienced ghost hunters are available at Port Arthur. Only these scheduled tours are permitted on the site after dark. Booking this tour is really recommended, because the storytellers that lead you through the region at night bring history to life. Also, exploring the prison at night is unparalleled. Nevertheless, these excursions fill up very quickly. So if you don't plan ahead, you can lose out on being able to visit the site at night.
The tours are completely booked at least four months in advance. Do you believe in ghosts? If you don't, then visit the Port Arthur Historic Site and there's a good chance you'll change your mind.
This episode is sponsored by Darkness Plays. EerieCast presents their brand new and very first comedy show, Darkness Plays. Join Darkness Prevails, host of Unexplained Encounters and Tales from the Break Room. In an unscripted, off-the-hinge train wreck where he and three friends play scary games and discuss the most important aspects of human life.
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It was difficult at first for Lauren to locate the dog. She had to circle the island while using her flashlight. The island had no lighting because no one was ever out there at night, or weren't supposed to be anyway. When she finally found it, she very carefully pulled the boat up to it and tied it off.
Once the boat was secure, she had to climb onto the dock that was built for the much larger tour boats. She struggled a bit, but made it up to the walkway where she then checked her bag to make sure everything she needed was still in it. Once she felt she was safe from anyone out on the water seeing her, she put on a headlamp that she had packed in her bag and tucked the flashlight away until she needed it.
As she walked down the path that led to the cemetery, she noticed that the paths were raised, kind of like a bridge with rails, to keep people from touching the tombstones. She didn't want to touch them, though, she just wanted to get some close-up pictures. She told herself she would be respectful as she began to climb over the railing. When her feet hit the ground, she was caught off guard by the soggy dirt.
and her feet sank causing her to stumble. Startled but unhurt, she wiped her hands on her pants and grabbed her bag. She had to climb up a hill to reach the first headstones, but stopped before she reached the top when she thought she heard someone singing. She quickly switched her headlamp off and quietly listened, but could only hear the sound of the water splashing against the island. At the top of the hill she was greeted by a sight that was eerily breathtaking.
This area of the cemetery was full of headstones scattered in a clearing that was lit up by the moonlight. As she walked through the graveyard snapping pictures of the grave markers and headstones, she was surprised that there were so many women amongst them. She must have been on the northern end of the cemetery where free and military people were buried. After she was satisfied that she had enough pictures, she made her way to the southern side of the cemetery, where the convicts had been buried.
There wouldn't be much to take pictures of, for the graves were unmarked. The ground was uneven, where many graves had long ago been dug and filled with bodies. She remembered the tour guide saying as they had cruised by the day before that the convicts were buried in mass graves. In this one small area of the island were over a thousand bodies lying just beneath her feet. She walked through them, and she began to feel a strong change in the air around her.
This place seemed to be much colder than the other side of the island. It was also much quieter. It was as if she could no longer hear the waves, even though she was just as close to the water as before. This place was beginning to creep her out, and she found herself suddenly in a hurry to leave. But as she turned to head back, something caught her by the ankle. She thought it was a root or something, but as she bent down to free it,
She saw what looked like a bony hand wrapped tightly around her ankle. She let out a scream, fell backwards and began to crawl, kicking with one foot while pulling with the other. Her headlamp lit up the area around her feet. She could see now that the hand belonged to a man, or what used to be a man. He was impossibly buried from the waist down inside the ground, while he was using his grip on her ankle to pull himself up.
He was making an awful moaning sound, and she could hear the same sound multiplying all around her. She looked around, and there were men in every direction crawling out of the earth, each in various states of decomposition. As they crawled above the ground, the earth was undisturbed, as if they were sliding through the earth like it was made of air.
Lauren, still fighting to get away, watched in horror as the numbers grew, and she fought even harder to free her ankle. Finally it broke free of the grip of the ghostly dead being that had grabbed it. Lauren jumped to her feet and began to run as fast as she could, but she got confused and couldn't find her way back to the dock. She ran back through the cemetery with all the headstones, still hearing the moans of the dead that were following her.
She was frantically trying to figure out which way to go. She climbed back up onto the elevated path, falling and banging her knee in the process. She tried to run but could only manage a steady limp due to the throbbing pain in her knee. She still didn't know which direction to go until she heard a voice from behind her yell, "This way!" She turned and standing several yards down the path was the young man that had been watching her during the guided tour the day before.
The young man that still seemed familiar. She didn't know who he was, but he looked a lot safer than those dead things that were after her. She followed him trying to keep up as he led her back towards the dock. She could still hear the moans behind her, and they seemed to be getting closer. The young man stopped once to let her catch up and then turned again. He led her straight to the boat, where he stopped her long enough to say, "Stop searching for the dead."
"Never come here again." She was puzzled by his comment, but just nodded in agreement, as it was a no-brainer that she would never come back to this place. He helped her get down into the boat, and she turned to look at him. But he took a step back. "Aren't you coming?" she asked him. He smiled at her and shook his head no. Lorne was about to argue when he untied the boat and let it loose from the dock. As it began to drift away, recognition finally hit her.
He was the man in the picture. "You're my dad," she whispered. The boat was drifting quickly, and she stood to watch him as he seemed to grow smaller with distance. But then he began to slowly fade away. Like a mist, he disappeared into the night air. Lauren sank into her seat. There were so many questions going through her mind. She reached around and pulled the bag off her back and retrieved the wallet from inside.
There she found his picture, and she stared at it until the sun began to rise. If that was her dad, how did he end up there? Had he somehow died on that horrible island? Had he been waiting for her all this time? Thank you for joining us to explore the Port Arthur Historical Site in Tasmania, Australia. Tune in next week as we discuss another terrorific location.
I'm Carmen Carrion. Remember, you can send me suggestions and stories of haunted places to my email carmencarrion at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter at Carmen Carrion. Be sure to check out eeriecast.com for more terrifying podcasts. Until next time, stay safe out there until I see you at our next destination.
