Hyde Park Barracks, in Macquarie Street, Sydney.
The large brick and stone Hyde Park Barracks building was constructed between 1817 and 1819 to provide secure sleeping quarters for male convicts who had been assigned to work for the New South Wales government.
Some 600 men slept in canvas hammocks inside twelve dormitories in the Hyde Park Barracks building, which is surrounded by high stone walls and a secure iron gate at the front.
The Barracks courtyard contained a kitchen and bakery, dining halls, store rooms, some small prison cells and privies (toilets).
The Deputy Superintendent of Hyde Park Barracks had apartments there for himself and his assistants.
From 1819 to 1848, the convicts were let out to go to work on sites around Sydney, but they would return to Hyde Park Barracks to eat and sleep.
Between 1848 and 1886 the Hyde Park Barracks became an Immigration Depot for single females, and between 1862 and 1886 it also housed old, sick and destitute women.
It was used as Courts and government offices from 1887 right up until 1979, when it was turned into a museum.
Sydney’s Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Queens Square, Macquarie Street, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia. p: (02) 8239-2311. f:61 2 8239-2322. Open daily 9:30am-5pm. Closed Good Friday and Christmas Day. For more information, visit www.hht.net.au
Image via Wikipedia
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