The Hyde Park Barracks is closed for a major renewal...
Over the coming months, the Hyde Park Barracks Museum will be transformed into a world-leading cultural destination, with new innovative visitor experiences, education programs and dynamic technology making it best in class for museums in Australia. Keep reading below for more details on the bold new future for the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.
The museum will re-open in early 2020, however you can find out more about Australia’s convict history through our award-winning Convict Sydney website.
You may also like to visit our other houses and museums.
Hyde Park Barracks
The Hyde Park Barracks is a UNESCO World Heritage site in the historic heart of Sydney. Built to house – and control – male convicts, the barracks had far-reaching impact as the administrative hub of the colony’s convict system. After 1848, it sheltered immigrant girls and young women, and cared for older, sick and poor women. Drawing together key threads of convict life, Aboriginal resilience and free immigration, the story of the barracks is the story of Australia’s modern beginnings.
Experience
Developed by internationally acclaimed exhibit design specialists Local Projects, the Hyde Park Barracks experience takes visitors where no history book ever could. It is about people, memory and living through times of immense change. The convict men and later the immigrant and asylum women who slept here, and the Aboriginal people impacted by this place, all left something of themselves in the story of the barracks. Immerse yourself in the past and see and hear their stories come to life.
Many stories
The Hyde Park Barracks was meant to be a place of control and hard work. But the real story for convict men, and later immigrant and asylum women, who slept in its dormitories was different. This was a place of mischief and violence, friendship and care. Likewise, the colony’s rapid expansion fuelled by convict and immigrant labour was resisted by Aboriginal communities. This is their story too.
Learning
Our new hands-on active learning spaces are designed for visitors of all ages to get curious, get creative and get their hands dirty; to see, hear, feel and imagine the stories of the Hyde Park Barracks and the people who lived there. These purpose-built spaces will allow independent visitors, families and schools groups to delve into archaeology, handle objects, play, make and do on this remarkable heritage site.
Hyde Park Barracks
Nine News: A convict meal Thursday 6 June 2019
Hyde Park Barracks
SMH: A king's feast of beef, pudding but no rum 200 years onWednesday 5 June 2019
Hyde Park Barracks
Re-enactment marks 200th anniversary of the BarracksTuesday 4 June 2019
Tuesday 4 June marks the 200th anniversary of the first convicts to take up residency in Hyde Park Barracks – recognising the beginning of new chapter of Australian history.
Hyde Park Barracks
On this day: an ‘excellent institution’ opensTuesday 4 June 2019
On Friday 4 June 1819, the Hyde Park Barracks officially went into operation.
Hyde Park Barracks
Installing a lift in the Hyde Park BarracksFriday 24 May 2019
Installing a lift into a UNESCO World Heritage-listed building like the Hyde Park Barracks is no small task. Take a look behind the scenes at the incredible work currently being undertaken, as the team talk through some of the challenges they...
The Collection
Almost 100,000 people – convicts, immigrants and asylum inmates – passed through the Hyde Park Barracks. Left behind were thousands of discarded items and personal possessions later discovered by archaeologists. Internationally renowned, this collection brings history to life in intimate ways, revealing previously unknown details of daily life in this 19th-century institution.