A visit to Hyde Park Barracks

Being a History geek, I got very excited a couple of days ago when I stumbled upon the Historic Houses Trust website. For UK readers, it's the Australian equivalent of the National Trust and they have a number of historical houses in and around Sydney. We were going into the city yesterday for a wander around, so I dragged the husband to the Hyde Park Barracks museum on Macquarie Street. He wouldn't admit it but I know he enjoyed it!

Between 1819 and 1848, Hyde Park Barracks housed male convicts who had been transported to Sydney to serve out sentences handed to them in the UK. After 1848 the main building housed female immigrants, mainly from Ireland, who had been encourgaed to emigrate out to Australia. The main building and surrounding outhouses are now a museum after several reincarnations as courthouses and government buildings during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a beautiful building from the outside and there are lots of Victorian features still evident inside.

Hyde Park Barracks. (Image from Time Out Sydney www.au.timeout.com/sydney)

The museum itself is definitely worth the AUS $10 admission fee with exhibits on the transportation of convicts from the UK, their daily lives in the barracks and the integration of reformed convicts into Sydney society. There are also fascinating models on how the building itself was transformed during the 19th and 20th centuries.

My next visit will be to the Museum of Sydney and then I will hopefully make my way though the list of other historical houses. Check out the Historic Houses Trust website if you're into all things historical like me and you happen to be in Sydney!

Details

Hyde Park Barracks, Queens Square, Macquarie Street, Sydney 2000. Open daily 9.30am-5pm (Closed Good Friday and Christmas Day). Adults: $10; Child/Concession: $5.

Historic Houses Trust www.hht.net.au