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Easter Outing
Apr. 21st, 2014 03:44 pmYesterday, Easter Sunday, was another family outing, this time to Goat Island, one of the many small islands in Sydney Harbour.
Like many places in Sydney, it started off as a labour/prison facility for the early convicts. Later it was used by the water police and fire department. When the black plague hit Sydney in 1900, it was used as a quarantine facility. Most recently it was used for the filming of the TV Show Water Rats, and up until the 1990s it was used as a government site for the Maritime Services. Now it's abandoned, apart from the historic tours that stop by - such as ours - but it's an interesting place, with all the layers of that history visible: original sandstone walls from the 1700s next to modern buildings and filming props left behind on the island.
We heard stories of infamous convicts, such as Charles "Bony" Anderson, who was chained to a rock on the island at night, and would scream so long and loud that people on the mainland could hear him. And we saw the prison carts, where convicts were chained together overnight, six per cart, so they could hardly move, and only the "luxury" carts contained a toilet. We saw the peep holes in the defence wall that soldiers could shoot through, but hardly see through. And the carved graffiti left behind by bored soldiers and employees from 1788 to the 1990s, still visible in the old wall.
The island also has ghost tours for people to meet some of the tortured spirits that live there. Our guide told us that most of the ghosts hang around the old morgue, but recently a heavy iron door in the showers, one that shouldn't even be able to move, swung back and forth as her tour group watched. She said half her group left in a hurry after that, but she spoke of the spirits like they were old friends, just keeping the place company.
( 12 illustrative photos, yay! )
All up, it was a good day out. Not something we do often, but worth the experience.
Like many places in Sydney, it started off as a labour/prison facility for the early convicts. Later it was used by the water police and fire department. When the black plague hit Sydney in 1900, it was used as a quarantine facility. Most recently it was used for the filming of the TV Show Water Rats, and up until the 1990s it was used as a government site for the Maritime Services. Now it's abandoned, apart from the historic tours that stop by - such as ours - but it's an interesting place, with all the layers of that history visible: original sandstone walls from the 1700s next to modern buildings and filming props left behind on the island.
We heard stories of infamous convicts, such as Charles "Bony" Anderson, who was chained to a rock on the island at night, and would scream so long and loud that people on the mainland could hear him. And we saw the prison carts, where convicts were chained together overnight, six per cart, so they could hardly move, and only the "luxury" carts contained a toilet. We saw the peep holes in the defence wall that soldiers could shoot through, but hardly see through. And the carved graffiti left behind by bored soldiers and employees from 1788 to the 1990s, still visible in the old wall.
The island also has ghost tours for people to meet some of the tortured spirits that live there. Our guide told us that most of the ghosts hang around the old morgue, but recently a heavy iron door in the showers, one that shouldn't even be able to move, swung back and forth as her tour group watched. She said half her group left in a hurry after that, but she spoke of the spirits like they were old friends, just keeping the place company.
( 12 illustrative photos, yay! )
All up, it was a good day out. Not something we do often, but worth the experience.
