Port Arthur was named after Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur who established a penal settlement there in 1830 to consolidate Van Diemen's Land penal stations in one area (Macquaire Harbour and Maria Island settlements were closed as a result). The penal settlement was closed in 1877, fourteen years after transportation ended and after at least twelve thousand five hundred convicts had served their sentence on the Tasman Peninsula.

For a description of Port Arthur during the period of transportation see R. Hughes, The Fatal Shore, London, 1987, pp. 398-408