Photos of Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area

Behind these gates was the New Prison for convicts on Norfolk Island. Built from 1836. by denisbin

Norfolk Second Phase Convict Era History. Archaeological digs by the Australian National University and the well documented convict system allowed researchers to piece together the history of this phase. Their work resulted in Kingston, Arthur’s Vale Historic Area (KAVHA) being made a World Heritage site in 2010. Like Port Arthur on Van Diemen’s Land, Norfolk was reserved for the “worse of the worst “prisoners which usually meant they had been convicted twice of a crime. The crimes themselves were not especially heinous or bad and 88% had committed non-violent crimes against property. Many were kept in leg irons and chained together, but to where could they escape? They worked in the mill and building the roads and prisons and officers houses. The convicts built the Quality Row houses for the officers, the hospital, and the barracks for the troops, the store rooms, the Commissariat Store and the new model prison of the 1840s etc. The whole site is of world importance as it exemplifies the British Empire convict system on the early 1800s. It is also infamous for its inhumanity and the degrading way of treating convicts. The Federal Government started restoring and preserving this area in 1973. This area contains many buildings historic and cultural significance including: Government House (1829+); the Old Military Barracks from 1829 (now the Legislative Assembly and Norfolk Island Court); the Commissariat Store (now All Saints Church 1835) – the finest commissariat store left in Australia; the New Military Barracks (now Norfolk Island Government Administration offices of 1836); the nine houses that provided quarters for military and civil officers (1832-47); the Prisoners' Barracks (1828-48) including the Protestant Chapel; the New Prison (Pentagonal Prison) (1836-40 and 1845-57); the ruins of the hospital (1829); the Surgeon's Quarters and Kitchen (1827); the Landing Pier (1839-47) and sea wall; and Beach store (1825); the Settlement Guardhouse (1826), the Crankmill (1827-38); the Royal Engineer's office and stables (1850); the Police Office, now boatshed (1828-29); the Blacksmith's Shop (1846); the Salt House (1847); and the Windmill base (1842-43). The Cemetery (1825-present) has an outstanding collection of headstones and other remains dating from the earliest period of European settlement, including the first and second penal settlement periods. Many stone walls, wells, drains, building platforms, bridges, culverts, roads, quarry sites, and privies add to the archaeological evidence for Norfolk including the remains of Bloody Bridge. The remnant serpentine landscape is an outstanding example of colonial period attitudes to landscape design in Australia. When the Pitcairn Islanders arrived in 1856 they were housed in the former penal settlement buildings and houses. When the government evicted them in 1908 many of these structures were then destroyed by fire. Some have since been restored.
Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area is a tourist attraction, one of the World Heritage Sites in Kingston, Norfolk Island. Read further
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