colonial court room

This court room model portrays some of the ways convicts, already sentenced to transportation and in Australia, might be found guilty of further offences and then be sent to the notorious prison at Port Arthur.

The display is intended to show the somewhat arbitrary way that a convict might reach Port Arthur - a magistrate might or might not order a man (no female prisoners in Port Arthur, some female assigned servants) to serve his term there, or the governor of the colony might intervene if the man had a skill useful to Port Arthur - the man is a plasterer, we need plasterers at Port A, send him there!

The spinning of the wheel gives a different sound track and series of movements from the characters. At the conclusion, the figure of Governor Arthur may appear "from the heavens" to make an order.

Movements include:

The Magistrate bangs his gavel;
The Clerk raises his list to read the charges;
One of six witmesses pops up in the box;
Governor Arthur (overhead and visible through a scrim only when needed) signs his ledger with a quill pen.