Hyde Park Barracks

This post is a report of a recent brief visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.

I have chosen to blog about this particular venue as I was very impressed with the way in which the building and its collection had been curated. It found a great balance between engagement with the collection; concise and informative narrative, and some innovative and elegant displays.

The facility provides good free printed guides for adults and an interactive workbook for children.

As well as single entry tickets this facility can be included in a pass which covers this venue and three other museums:

• Museum of Sydney
• Justice and Police Museum
• Susannah Place Museum

The building has had a varied history, which can be divided into four phases:

• 1817 - 1848 Convict Period (50,000 convicts)
• 1848 - 1886 Immigration and Asylum Period (40,000 women and children)
• 1887 - 1979 Courts and Offices Period
• 1979 - today Museum Period

The main focus of the museum is on the first two periods of time.

The facility was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Register in 2010, along with ten other Australian Sites which document the convict history of Australia.

For people interested in the history of Australia this site is well worth the time and small cost associated with a visit.

External view of the Barracks.  The building was designed by a convict architect, Francis Greenway, who received a full pardon for his work.

Rats which at other museums in Sydney are used as an icon for the arrival of the plague in Sydney in 1900 AD are here lauded as the archaeologist's friend as many of the items in the collection were preserved in the dry environment of rat nests. 'Ratty' is the mascot for the kids' interpretative guide.

Rats were not kind to all of the artefacts placed in their care.

Clever use of visual prompts allows the visitor to intuit the one time presence of a staircase.

Convict Period - On the third floor a row of hammocks allows visitors to experience a bit of life in the barracks, albeit with a lot less noise and smell than the original inhabitants needed to endure.

Convict Period - Cut out figures act as story boards for selected persons from the 50,000 convicts who passed through the facility.

Convict Period - a display label - a good example of a concise narrative that easily allows the visitor to imagine the story.

Immigration Period - The use of cut out cards gives a sense of layers

Immigration Period - Elegant boxes with multiple glass layers allow for the display of multiple artifacts on different layers.  On some of the boxes the opening of the lid would activate a switch with triggered an audio or a video element.

Immigration Period - screen printed panels allow for one of the 40,000 stories to be told.

Immigration Period - A more encompassing view of the boxes and bed used in the immigration display.