Early life
George Eastman was born in July 1818 in England.
Specific details of his early life are sparse, but his later clerical career suggests he received a basic formal education that was sufficient enough for service in the Anglican Church.
Van Diemen’s Land
In 1844, at the age of 26, Eastman arrived in Van Diemen’s Land aboard the convict transport ship London as a catechist. In this capacity he gained experience in colonial religious work across the British colony, including in Cygnet and Jericho.
He married Louisa McLeod, the daughter of a probation station superintendent, in May 1845 – and they would go on to have 10 children together!
Three years later, in 1848, Eastman entered formal Anglican ministry as a deacon. He was fully ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1850.
His first assignment as a priest was at the female factory at Ross. He was later sent to the Tasman Peninsula, where he worked across several convict stations, including Koonya.
The chaplain of Port Arthur
Reverend George Eastman in the pulpit of Port Arthur’s church.
In 1857, Eastman was assigned to the Port Arthur penal settlement as its Church of England chaplain.
He and his family lived on site in the two-storey parsonage, and he conducted services in the church next door. He even helped convicts at the end of their sentences by giving them money. Eastman became widely respected for this, and the convicts referred to him as ‘the good parson’.
His sons were rambunctious, however, often annoying the convicts who tended the prison site’s farm.
In April 1870, his thirteenth year at Port Arthur, Eastman was suffering from cold-like symptoms when he travelled in bad weather to one of the settlement’s outstations to administer last rites to a seriously ill convict. He developed pneumonia shortly after returning to Port Arthur and soon passed away, at the age of 51.
He was buried on the Isle of the Dead, his epitaph memorialising his long service as a chaplain on the Tasman Peninsula.
On 2 May 1870, the Mercury reported:
“The funeral of the late Rev. George Eastman took place at Port Arthur on Thursday afternoon at 3 o’clock. Early on that day the body was removed from the parsonage to the church where, at half-past two, the appointed service […] was most impressively conducted by the Rev. Dr. Parsons, of All Saints’ Hobart Town, who had arrived the same morning for the purpose by the Government schooner Harriet.
“All the [prison staff] who could be spared from duty attended, many being accompanied by their families; and such of the prisoners and paupers as had expressed a wish to pay this last tribute of respect to their revered chaplain were also present.”
Legacy
Eastman left behind Louisa, who was “in delicate health” at the time of his death, along with their 10 children. The family struggled financially after his passing.
Stories have also emerged since 1870 that Eastman’s spirit remains in the parsonage at Port Arthur, with repeated sightings by visitors and staff of a tall figure in a coat or clerical attire.
There have also been reports from inside the parsonage of unexplained sounds (including footsteps), cold spots, physical sensations (such as nausea and unease), and lights behaving oddly (for example, turning on at night when no-one is meant to be inside).
Because of all this, the parsonage is one of the first stops on Port Arthur’s well-known ghost tours.
The parsonage at Port Arthur (2010).
References & Bibliography
- Cameron, David W. (2021), Convict-era Port Arthur: Misery of the Deepest Dye, Penguin Group Australia, Australia
- Eastman, Hubert Claude (1989), The Chaplin’s Charity: Rev. George Eastman (1818-70) Some Ancestors and Descendants, Mid-Gippsland Group, Genealogical Society of Victoria, Australia
- Port Arthur: People
- Port Arthur: Useful Facts
- History Timeline (Port Arthur Historic Site website)
- The ‘Port Arthur’ Organ: Fact and Legend
- Hell on Earth and the Haunting in Port Arthur, Tasmania (Moon Mausoleum)
- Port Arthur / Tasmania (TravelArk)
- Port Arthur Ghost Tour (On The Road Magazine)
- Dark Tasmania – Port Arthur Ghost Tour (The Andy T Channel)
- A tale of two epitaphs: The haunting of Port Arthur tells a bigger Australian story than it seeks to… (St. Eutychus)
- Church at Port Arthur [Tasmania] [picture] (Tove)
- The Late Rev. George Eastman (The Mercury, Monday 2 May 1870, page 3)
- IOTD-Rev1-V.01 (AnyFlip)
- Port Arthur Ghostly Image? (Ghost Theory)
- The Parsonage, Port Arthur (On The Convict Trail)
Tas That Was is a column that includes:
- anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
- historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
- documentaries about locations in Tasmania.
If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to [email protected].
Callum J. Jones is passionate about telling stories. He studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania and lived in Western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. Callum has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.
