Hyde Park Barracks

1817

A convict architect designed barracks for 600 convict men

Governor Macquarie thought that barracks would improve the character of male convicts and increase their productivity, so he asked the convict architect Francis Greenway to design barracks for 600 men. Convicts built them. Macquarie laid the foundation stone on 6 April 1817, and the barracks were finished in 1819. Greenway had been transported for forging signatures.

Hammocks

Up to 1,400 men slept in hammocks, two rows to a room

Inside, the four rooms on each floor were hung with two rows of hammocks, each hammock allowed a space of 2.1 by 0.6 metres. The barracks soon proved too small, and up to 1400 men were housed there at one time. It has been estimated that about 30,000 men and boys passed through between 1819 and 1848.

30,000men and boys passed through between 1819 and 1848

1848

It became a depot for women arriving alone

When convict transportation stopped in 1840, there were fewer convicts to house, and by 1848 the remaining men were moved to Cockatoo Island. The Barracks became the Female Immigration Depot, which gave temporary shelter to newly arrived single women while they were found work. Between 1862 and 1886 the top floor held the Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women.

World Heritage

It is one of 11 convict sites on the World Heritage List

The site is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of 11 pre-eminent Australian Convict Sites. It was closed in January 2019 for restoration work and reopened in February 2020. Over the years the building has been a barracks, a hospital, a mint, a courthouse and now a museum.

The courts

From 1830 convicts were sentenced and flogged on this site

From 1830 convicts were brought to the site for sentencing and punishment by the Court of General Sessions, which sat in the buildings on the northern edge. Punishments included floggings, which were carried out on site, or terms on the treadmill or in chain gangs.