The voices of Convict Sydney

Convict Sydney. Photo: Ben Mercer

Historic Houses Trust NSW has opened their latest exhibition at Hyde Park Barracks: Convict Sydney. Irish Wattle visited this impressive show earlier this week, and loved it!

Hyde Park Barracks - checking for stolen goods. Photo: Ben Mercer

Just some of the features include wonderful murals depicting life before transportation, and after arrival; a giant map that guides you through the streets of early Sydney; and touch screens allowing you to scroll extracts of the Barracks Benchbook, where crimes and sentences were recorded.

Interactive touch screen map of early colonial Sydney. Photo: Ben Mercer

Interactive touch screen mural. Photo: Ben Mercer

Details for the exhibition are below. To find out more, go to the Historic Houses Trust or follow on Facebook for updates on all their brilliant work!

Location: Queens Square, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Contact:   02 8239 2311
Admission: Adult $10 I Child /Concession $5 | Family $20 | Members free
Hours:  Daily 9.30am — 5.00pm

Its a great way to spend a morning and to get to know Sydney's convict past!

Convict sites awarded World Heritage status

Old Government House, Parramatta. Source: Flickr

Eleven of Australia's historical sites were given World Heritage status this week. Together, they illustrate the key aspects of the convicts' experience in the penal colony. Established by the British empire across the 18th and 19th centuries, many of the sites housed or employed tens of thousands of men, women and children condemned to transportation. The sites now protected are:

• Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area (Norfolk Island)
• Old Government House and Domain (Parramatta)
• Hyde Park Barracks (Sydney)
• Cockatoo Island Convict Site (Sydney)
• Old Great North Road (New South Wales)
• Cascades Female Factory (Tasmania)
• Port Arthur Historic Site (Tasmania)
• Coal Mines Historic Site (Tasmania)
• Brickendon–Woolmers Estates (Tasmania)
• Darlington Probation Station (Tasmania)
• Fremantle Prison (Western Australia)

Hyde Park Barracks wants your reunion photo

Hyde Park Barracks. Source: http://www.hht.net.au

The Hyde Park Barracks is putting together a new semi-permanent exhibition about convicts in Sydney. A component of the exhibition discusses the legacy of convicts and the many descendants of convicts alive today who are very proud of their ancestry.

We are looking for a photograph of a large family reunion of people descended from a convict. It would be preferable to have descendants of a convict who resided in the Hyde Park Barracks, but any Sydney-based convict would be welcome.

If you recently had a family reunion of convict descendants, had a group photograph taken and are happy to have this on display in the Hyde Park Barracks, please contact Kate Bruxner at the Museum of Sydney on 02 9251 5988 or email kateb@hht.net.au.

Source: The Society of Australian Genealogists, June newsletter