Port Arthur campsite is probably one of the best in Tasmania. Sites are set in a large park. The facilities are good and there is loads of privacy. Parakeets visit regularly looking for scraps. You can walk by a footpath round the bays to Port Arthur itself, an attractive 45 minute amble. The path descends to a bay and you follow the beach round until you rejoin the path at the far side. The path now rounds the point where there is a large hotel to drop down into Port Arthur. Entering this way we discovered you avoid the entrance. Port Arthur itself did not do a lot for us. It is a pretty site, dominated by a large Georgian style building. The site is very much on the tour bus route and hordes of tourists are shown around in groups with audio tours. We walked round some of the buildings but compared with the prison buildings on Norfolk Island there was little to convey the atmosphere of the time. The most affecting part of the site is the memorial garden to 35 people gunned down in 1996 by a lone gunman, mostly in what was then a cafe. We walked up to the crowded cafe swelling with tour buses and sadly left the site. On the walk back we wondered why this "highlight" of Tasmania affected us so little. It could be as Brits the history has less significance for us than Australians. Although really the deportation of Britain's criminals to Tasmania is very much a hidden part of British history. The prettified Georgian buildings are not so unusual for English people. However, the real problem with the site is that the highly restored buildings, tour groups and crowded visitor centres detract from the idea of isolation and punishment. Something that was a very strong feeling on Island