of these women as “a monolithic bunch of damned whores,” most of them were convicted of petty crime, serving sentences of seven to fourteen years. The opening of penal settlements at Maria Island (1825) and Port Arthur (1832) on the Tasman Peninsula, 111 km Southeast of Hobart Town, brought more importance to the island's East Coast, which resulted in the closing of Sarah Island penitentiary in 1833. The first land grants at Richmond were made in 1823, however the township began to grow much more rapidly after Port Arthur was founded, as it soon became an important stop on the highway to Port Arthur. Richmond Gaol was soon opened in 1825, and the oldest surviving bridge in Australia, the Richmond Bridge, was built there across the Coal River in 1823. The penitentiary at Port Arthur, although now remembered as a cruel and unpleasant place, was at the time one of the most advanced prisons. Improvements were made with the opening in 1853 of the 'separate prison', also known as the "model prison", the design of which was based on the modernised prison of Pentonville in London. Conditions were fair, a legitimate attempt was made to reform men, and boys were taught a trade and given religious lessons in a very pious society. Port Arthur was guarded by day and night by a line of soldiers and dogs, across the isthmus of the peninsula. In 1831 the need for better facilities to contain the convicts within Hobart Town was answered by the opening of the Campbell Street Gaol with its magnificent Penitentiary Chapel, and open execution yard. Law Courts were soon added, and remained in use until 1983. The gaol features underground passages and solitary confinement cells. Port Arthur the site of the secondary punishment penitentiary opened in 1830. By 1835 it had grown to house 800 convicts, many of whom regularly served in chain gangs. It operated until 1877. Only 6% of convicts in Hobart were kept confined in gaols. The majority were used on government building projects, such as the Sorell Causeway, or worked as indentured servants for free settlers. Despite this relative freedom, some continued to offend and transgressors were often confined by heavy leg irons, and flogged for minor indiscretions. Convict transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was to last exactly 50 years. In the 1840s, a strong local opposition group grew in Hobart Town known as