ABSTRACT
It is important to situate that a subset of dark tourism literature is a phenomenon known as penal tourism whereby the public visits former prisons refurbished as museums. In relation to Port Arthur, Maria Tumarkin reminds us that it was a: place that made the violence of the convict era seem enthralling and benign for the benefit of tourists. Whilst she does not specifically situate her research within the field of trauma tourism, Tumarkin has nevertheless made a most valuable contribution to the study of dark tourism, particularly in places associated with violence and crime. Thus, a painting of a traumatised landscape that dared to capture Bryant in its frame captured the author's attention and enticed him to visit Port Arthur to explore the manner in which the remnants of colonial violence and contemporary violence co-exist. Crime event located in a remote part of Tasmania, the Tasman peninsula on which Port Arthur is considered as natural penitentiary.
