Australian prison. How prison labor hinders economic development
Port Arthur is located on the Tasmanian Peninsula in Australia. This small town is known for the fact that until 1877 there was a hard labor prison, which was considered one of the most scary prisons in the world. It contained the most notorious criminals, including those who had already escaped from other prisons. In the prison, built in 1933, approximately 13,000 prisoners served their sentences, 2,000 of whom died in it.
The Port Arthur prison was a complex of 60 buildings. There were 80 solitary cells, a hospital morgue, a Catholic chapel, Cathedral, where representatives of all faiths could pray, a psychiatric hospital, a bakery, a laundry, a kitchen, a commandant's residence and much more. Most of prison buildings were damaged during forest fires, wooden buildings were destroyed by them, only stone ones survived.
Port Arthur prison is now open to tourists. They can inspect what is left of the prison buildings. Within the walls of the prison, actors act out scenes from the life of prisoners. Excursions are also held on the Isle of the Dead, where the prison cemetery is located, tourists are also shown the former colony for boys of Point Puer, where they were sent from the age of nine.
10th place among all the high-profile escapes is the escape from the Maze prison. For several decades, this case has remained one of the most high-profile in the UK. On September 25, 1983, in the city of Antrim, which is located in Northern Ireland, eight people who had previously served in the Irish Republican Army were able to escape from a local prison. They were sentenced to prison for numerous murders and terrorist attacks.
9th place belongs to the history of Alfred Hinds. In the UK, this prisoner had considerable popularity. He received twelve years for armed robbery, but during that time he was able to organize his own escape from three prisons. However, he spent the six years that remained in Parkhest Prison, located on the Isle of Wight.
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The Earth is in third place in terms of distance from the Sun and in fifth place among all the planets. solar system to size.
Age– 4.54 billion years
Medium radius - 6,378.2 km
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8th place in the nomination of the top 10 famous prison breaks given to seven from Texas. On December 13, 2000, a group of prisoners escaped from a Texas prison. Half a million dollars was promised for the capture of dangerous criminals. The escape took place on Election Day. The prisoners were taken to the voting room, but with the help of various tricks, they were able to disarm the guards and leave the prison walls. Now two of them are dead and five are on death row.
7th place given to the escape of Alfred Wetzler from the concentration camp. A Jew by nationality, Wetzler was in the German concentration camp "Auschwitz". After a successful escape, he set out in his notes a clear plan of the camp, a description of crematoria, gas chambers, and so on. The escape took place in April 1944, on the day of Passover.
Escape from Siberia to India takes 6 position. This story involved the Polish soldier Slawomir Ravich, who was arrested in 1939. He went through torture and interrogation by the NKVD, but survived and was sent to construction works to camp number 303, located near the Arctic Circle. On April 9, 1941, he organized his flight. But, according to a BBC investigation in 2006, it turned out that Ravich's escape turned out to be more of a hoax.
Escape from Alcatraz 5th place. The most famous escape from this prison was by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers. They escaped through the service tunnel, which was not guarded. According to the official version, the fugitives are considered missing, but there were rumors that relatives of former prisoners received letters from them from South America.
4th place takes a mass exodus from "Libby". In February 1864, at the time civil war on the territory of America, the escape of more than a hundred prisoners from a prison located in Virginia was organized. The prison was famous for its terrible conditions and complete lack of sanitation.
3rd place occupies the escape of Johnny D. This man was one of the most notorious criminals of the 30s in America. Johnny was serving time for multiple bank robberies. Twice he managed to escape from American prisons, but on March 22, 1934, he was killed while resisting arrest.
Helicopter escape takes 2 position in the ranking. The prisoner Pascal Payet escaped twice with the help of an airplane and friends who were at large. In the interval between his time in prison, he was able to rescue several more people with the help of a helicopter. The first escape was made in 2001, Payet spent four years at large, the second escape was in 2007. But three months later he was caught again. Now all data on its placement are classified by the police in order to avoid such cases.
1 place of honor belongs to an inconspicuous escape. Julien Shtorde was convicted of arson. After arriving at the London prison, Shatord hid under the bottom of the van, thus leaving the territory of the correctional institution. His disappearance was noticed seven hours later, when one of the guards was looking through the footage and saw a strange shadow under the truck. The most interesting thing is that after three days in the wild, Shatord returned to the police station with a confession.
Once a huge prison, Australia now ranks first in the global happiness rankings.
History modern Australia began in 1606, when the reckless Dutch captain Janszoon landed on an unknown land and named it "New Zealand" - in honor of the Dutch province.
Here this name did not take root, but subsequently moved to the islands to the east of Australia. The Dutch did not take root either: the local population met them with hostility, several sailors died. Having given the order to raise the anchors, the captain wrote in the ship's log: "Nothing good can be done there."
This conclusion was also confirmed by his compatriot Captain Karstenz: "These shores are unsuitable for life, they are inhabited by poor and miserable creatures."
The largest prison in the world
Well, the Dutch have always been good sailors, but absolutely no warriors. The British are different. James Cook was sent to extend the power of the crown to unknown lands - he extended. With fire and sword, the English colonists won back food and water on the Australian coast. The Dutch probably saw this only as a confirmation of the words of Captain Jansson.
In those years, it already became clear that Great Britain bit off more land for itself than it could really master. The only use that has been found for Australia is a beautiful, well-isolated from the civilized (thousands of miles of water) prison.
Already 18 years after Cook's first visit, those who would later be delicately called "stowaways on Her Majesty's ships" landed on the shore - convicts. Several tens of thousands of embittered people, often seriously ill, dying in hard labor, expelling the natives and infecting them with diseases unknown in Australia - became the basis of the future Australian society.
FOR REFERENCE : Now, in the 10s of the 21st century, Australia ranks first in the world ranking of happiness Better Life Index from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. GDP per capita goes off scale for 45 thousand dollars - a place in the top ten of the world, out of big countries ahead of the United States. 84% of Australians say they are "much more likely" to experience positive emotions than negative ones.
How the hell did they do it?
At one time, Australia (like New Zealand) began to rise on gold and wool. Sheep began to be bred by convicts, and later it became literally a national occupation (“Australia rides a sheep”) and until the end of World War II provided the main influx of funds into the country. Suffice it to say that in the 1880s a unique “dog fence” was built here, more than 5 thousand kilometers long (more than enough to block the European part of Russia from north to south), protecting pastures from dingo dogs.
Like New Zealand, Australia experienced a gold boom in the 1870s. But if easily accessible deposits were quickly depleted, then in general, Australian reserves have not been depleted so far. This is a real world pantry: almost the entire periodic table is mined here.
Australia secured its de facto independence from the British crown thanks to… meat freezing technology. After it became possible to export not only wool, but also other parts of sheep, a country with a well-developed agriculture by that time could simply ignore London. And the British had the wisdom not to start a military operation far away: the air already smelled of the First World War.
And they had little chance of winning. After all, it was a kind of contingent of the first settlers that played a role in the success of Australia. Courage, endurance, perseverance, ability to work hard were originally Australian trump cards in front of pampered Europe.
There was no happiness, but the war helped
And then world wars thundered, which greatly enriched Australia, remote from conflicts, both in increased demand for raw materials and in human capital: thousands of qualified specialists left here from mobilization, fighting, devastation.
It must be said that not everyone was accepted: until the 1970s, the concept of “White Australia” dominated, and, say, entry to Asians was actually closed. Only when the level of education in Asia increased to more or less decent, the ban was lifted - and now people from China, Indochina, India are playing important role in the country.
The rich subsoil, the wonderful climate of the southern coast, multiplied by the harsh Protestant ethic (its traces can still be traced in the country, although most of its inhabitants have long been non-religious), helped to turn the inhospitable continent into a flourishing land. There are quite a lot of problems in Australia, as elsewhere - now, let's say, it is a confrontation with Muslim expansion (more precisely, the way of life that migrants bring with them), but it is difficult to doubt that the Australians will cope with this scourge. This is not Europe, here everything is more serious and simpler.
Dreaming about distant lands is common for children and adults. But this is perhaps the most amazing country. The country. Island. Continent. And it's all about Australia! South of Indonesia, between Indian Ocean and the South Pacific is this smallest continent on the globe. When talking about this wonderful part of our planet, we will often use superlatives and the word “most”.
The most flat country in the world. The landforms in this part of the earth are quite small. Not here at all high mountains and very few rivers. Perhaps the only big river is the Murray-Darling. Australia is the driest continent inhabited by humans. No more than 500 mm of precipitation per year falls on its deserts, the semi-deserts of the Center and West, and the jungles of the east and southeast coasts. The coast can't boast big amount bays and coves, because the coastline is quite flat. The largest bays are the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Great Australian Gulf.
The important physical characteristics of the island also include the Big barrier reef The coral reef is the longest in the world. Its length is 2300 km, and it is visible from space.
Beautiful cities are located along the coast of the ocean, numerous huge sandy beaches. In winter, there is a huge amount of snow in the mountains, such as the Snowy Mountains or the Australian Alps. Sometimes - more than in all of mountainous Switzerland.
The cleanest air in the world is in Tasmania, Australia. The whitest sand on Hyams Beach, located on the shores of Jersey Bay. It was even entered into the Guinness Book of Records.
Australia is the oldest continent, but the youngest state. And yet ... it has no land borders with any country. Leading in terms of literacy, Australia is one of the ten countries in the world with the highest standard of living. Outstripped such a monster as South America in diamond mining. After opening in 1979. diamond vein in Western Australia, it now ranks first in the world in the production of these precious stones. The country's currency is the Australian dollar, by the way, made of plastic.
The largest city in this country is Sydney (4 million people). The capital Canberra is not so crowded - its population is 300 thousand people. But it is there that the largest building in the southern hemisphere is located. This is the magnificent building of the Australian Parliament.
An architectural marvel built in 1960 is the Sydney Opera House. Think about it, it has 1000 rooms! Placed - 5000 people! And the roof of this grand structure weighs 161 tons.
Another monumental building is the largest arched bridge in Sydney Harbor - Bridge. And the Sydney Television Tower is the tallest in the southern hemisphere. 
Making up 1% of the world's population, 88% of Australians live in cities. Moreover, literally a quarter of the population of this continent was born outside of it. And 32% of women and 34% of men have never been engaged. 2.5 people per 1 sq. km - such a population density of this country, comparable in area to populous Europe.
Once - the largest prison - a former British penal colony ... now - the mainland with the lowest crime rate on the globe. Although over the past 200 years, a total of 160 thousand prisoners have been exiled to this remote continent. The indigenous tribes (natives) who lived in “New South Wales” (as Australia was called in those days) spoke 200 languages and dialects. Now they make up only 1.5% of the population and drag out a miserable, beggarly existence. But the other part of the population is not shy about their spending, for example, when playing poker. 20% of the funds worldwide lost in this insanely gambling game are accounted for by the inhabitants of this country.
The largest pasture in the world (in Australia it is called a ranch) is comparable to the territory of such European country like Belgium. The most popular pets are sheep. And if the number of these animals is 150 million, then, for comparison, the population of the continent is 20 million people. In this amazing country, there are 16 times more rabbits than people. They are classified as pests. There are a lot of kangaroos, which are now even bred on the ranch.
Marsupials living in Australia, like many millions of years ago, are not the only rare species of the animal world. IN national parks and nature reserves of the continent, such as Buffalo, Kosciuszko, South West, etc., emu, kangaroo, kookaburra, koala, various parrots, cockatoo, feral dog Dingo, platypus and echidna, snakes (among them there are a lot of poisonous ones) feel great .
Penguins and seals swim from Antarctica to the southern coast of the mainland. There are a lot of insect species in this country: 4000 species of ants, 350 termites, 6000 flies, 1500 spiders.
©Inga Korneshova the article was written specifically for the site 
Since this mainland is located in the southern hemisphere, when we have winter - there - the summer heat and the beach season. And even the disk of the moon on this “island-continent” is turned upside down.