Hyde Park Barracks Museum

Another museum on the list was the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.  It is right in the heart of the CBD.   This place is actually a World Heritage listed place.   It is one of the most significant convict sites in the world.  It was a crossroads for tens of thousands of people and it played a central role in the world's largest and longest-running system of convict transportation.

The Barracks

Gates the convicts passed through

Map showing the route from England to Australia

 

Mural depicting scenes during this time

 

Mural cont'd

Sleeping barracks....it would have been miserable

 

Aram doesn't even fit 

The Barracks opened in 1819.  It's purpose was to sleep, feed, and control upwards of 600 male convicts.  It soon took on a more pivotal role.  From 1830, officials working at the barracks administered the world's most elaborate and ambitious program of convict labor and punishment at that time.  A decade later as the tide of public opinion turned, the convict transportation ended.  In 1848, when the Barracks were closed, it is estimated that 50,000 convicts had passed through the entrance gates. 

From all of our tours and exploring throughout Sydney, pretty much any large sandstone building was built by convicts as part of their hard labor.  Let me tell you what, there are plenty of these buildings.

After the transportation of convicts ended, then Hyde Park Barracks became an Immigration Depot.  Over 4000 Irish orphan girls came here.  They bunked at the Barracks, but the rooms instead had single metal framed beds.  Then they girls became hired help.  Overall it was not a very good thing.  Most employers thought these girls as un-hireable. 

Even though this is a World Heritage Listed site, it is quite a sad story for what these men, women and children went through.  It's also hard to hear people here in Australia not wanting immigrants because most of them are the offspring of immigrants.  Just keep in mind that everyone deserves a place to call home and be welcomed.

Ann & Aram