River of blood
A river of blood is flowing through Port Arthur.
The lives of 35 people taken away by a gun
used by a man for reasons of his own.
Innocent victims of this place,
the best-publicised of all its deaths.
They will not soon be forgotten.
But there have been many others over the years...
The natives, who have lived here since the dreamtime,
were the first trickles to go into the river,
when the English arrived here, and turned it into a gaol.
Their spirits still wander this place,
reminding us of their existence.
Then the convicts in their thousands
were brought to this gaol, the world's largest.
The whole Tasman Peninsula (or was it the whole island?)
became their prison.
Here at Port Arthur they suffered, died and were buried.
The river grew, and flowed thick with their blood.
Their ghosts still walk here too,
afraid to stop, lest they be forgotten.
The Isle of the Dead stands in the bay,
testament to the cruelty which this place saw.
Hundreds of convicts buried in mass graves,
barely covered by soil, but plenty of quicklime,
to make sure their bodies rotted even further in death
than they had in their life here.
'Real' people had gravestones erected.
Most of the convicts did not,
and their names live on only in the records
of their imprisonment and torture here.
Yes, a river of blood is flowing through Port Arthur,
but has been for many years.
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