Hyde Park Barracks

Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, Australia is a brick building designed by convict and architect Francis Greenway and constructed from 1818 to 1819. The building on Macquarie Street in Sydney CBD, and is listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List as Australian Convict Sites and on the Australian National Heritage List. The site was intended to house male convicts. Today it is operated as a museum by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

Hyde Park Barracks

Hyde Park Barracks (1914)

The building is in close proximity to the historic Sydney Mint and Hyde Park.

History

Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered the construction of brickwork to house convicts until 1838 who had to work for the colonial government of New South Wales. With this building, Macquarie deviated from the previously practiced British colonial policy of creating convict camps in which strict discipline and religious education were practiced, thereby liberalising them. From 1848 to 1886 it was used for young immigrants looking for work and waiting for their families. From 1887 to 1979 it housed courts and government offices.

In 1981 the building was restored and today it houses a museum about the history of the convicts. In July 2010 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of a selected set of Australian Convict Sites.

The museum can be visited daily with a few exceptions on certain days and certain public holidays.

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  Hyde Park Barracks
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  Interior view of the bedroom
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  Detail of the hammocks

Other websites

• A Place For The Friendless Female: Sydney's Female Immigration Depot
• UNESCO announcement of World Heritage listing