Hyde Park Barracks Museum

A key historical building to Sydney's and Australia's history.

The Hyde Park Barracks, built between 1811-1819 has been many things. Originally designed to house convict men and boys, on the request of Governor Macquarie. He had become disturbed by the male convicts' behaviour in the streets after work. Macquarie thought that barracks would improve the moral character of the men and increase their productivity. The barracks for 600 men was designed and constructed by convicts. Four rooms on each floor were hung with two rows of hammocks, with a 3 foot passage. One of the rooms has been restored with all the hammocks. Quite the tight fit with no privacy.
Macquarie later noted that since the confinement of the convicts to the barrayat night "not a tenth part of the former robberies" has occurred.
The accommodation would soon be inadequate. Up to 1400 men were housed in the Barracks at any one time. In 1820, to ease the crowding a reward of being allowed to live outside the Barracks was extended. Convicts found gambling, drunk, engaged in street violence, or other poor behavior were sent back to the barracks. Now it had become a form of punishment. By 1848 the number of convicts remaining did not warrant the large area and were removed to Cockatoo Island.

The barracks then became the Female Immigration Depot. The depot gave temporary shelter to newly arrived single females while they were found positions. The women had been encouraged to immigrate to help with labor shortages, and the gender imbalance in the colony. Women from Ireland, devastated by the Great Famine, were particularly targeted for immigration. One room has a fabulous collection of the little things that many carried on their journey to Australia. Later the barracks housed an orphanage. An Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women used the top floor from 1862 to 1886, to provide care to 150 women with terminal illnesses who could not afford medical treatment. Get the self guided audio for great recreated stories from the workers and women living there. Like Matron Lucy Applewhaite-Hicks, who lived on the second floor with her family.
After the asylum, the building housed various government agencies until the 1970's. In 1981 the barracks was designated as a historical site and restoration began. You can hardly tell it served as any other agencies. Sections of original paint, signs and flooring were well preserved. As well as a lot of period memorabilia and authentic clothing.

UNESCO lists the barracks as one of 11 pre-eminent Australian Convict Site.

Allow at least an hour and a half. There's a lot to learn.

This is another one of Sydney's many colonial museums. In fact, it wasn't until I started coming here more often than not that I started to discover a number of these places. Basically, this museum used to be the barracks for the troops that made sure the convicts didn't get up to any real mischief. Personally, I didn't consider it to be one of those places that is necessarily all that great, however, it was still rather interesting, especially since it has been set up to help us see how the lived back in those days.

Lots to learn about Australia's convict past, including incarceration of women. Interesting exhibits and posted information. Can proceed at your own pace.

I'd say this museum is a must-see for anyone who wants to learn more about Australia's past. It may not look like much from the outside, but there is so much to see and learn about when you go inside.

After I purchased my tickets I received a device that, once you input the exhibit number, would play information about that particular exhibit. Listening to this while looking around was very informative and interesting. The museum is pretty well set up. I'd recommend it for any tourists going to Sydney!

One of the highlights of my visit to Sydney was the visit to the Barracks. An insightful look into the past of Australia and the inhumanity of the banishment of convicts. The industrial revolution brought massive changes to England including increases in crime as those on the margins were left destitute and hopeless. Sound familiar? Offences from pick-pocketing to murder could result in a death sentence. The "lucky" men, women and children who inspired mercy were banished to penal colonies. The Barracks was the first stop to many sent to New South Wales.

The museum is close to Hyde Park, the St James shopping area and the NSW Art Gallery. The cost is $12 AUD or you can purchase a museum pass that offers unlimited visits for a month to an array of museums in Sydney for $24 AUD. the audio guide is free but I found it a bit distracting. I suggest trying to arrive at tour times or just peruse the exhibits at your own pace. The museum is well laid out and very informative. Highly recommend.

A very informative and important museum/piece of Australian history. While there have done a good job preserving some things and recreating others of this site, it really isn't a whole lot to really see compared to more traditional museums. What there is a lot of, and a lot to take in is stories and information. Allocate sufficient time to walk through the all the rooms on all the floors and read and listen to everything. As others have stated in their reviews, it's an important piece of Australian history, and I'm glad I took the time to spend a few hours here to learn a lot.
Included in admission is use of an interactive device that allows you to listed to stories and get information on what you want, in the order you want, at your own pace.
The place tells a story that will leave you in chills and thankful we live in a different time.
There is a room that had models of the building throughout its history and explains the building was used for. Taking this in perceptive it really is amazing at how well they have recreated parts of the building. In many several parts you would have thought the building was just left that way from the days it was a barracks.
Basically across from Hyde Park, and St. Mary's Cathedral, it's should be easy to visit all of these in one afternoon.

I never thought my 1,000th review would be for something in Sydney, Australia...but, wow, what a great museum!

The museum is located in an amazingly restored building and it showcases the beginnings of Sydney. The museum is rich with artifacts, exhibits and great information on what eventually became the city we know of today. When I first entered this spot, I actually wasn't expecting as much stuff as they had - it was a very good and extensive collection of artifacts and pieces detailing Sydney's early beginnings. One of my favorite parts were the computerized maps where one can see a map of Sydney from the late 1700s and superimpose a current map of the city...another great section was to see the recreated sleeping quarters of the convicts.

This is a must see in Sydney...everyone told me it was worth the visit and they were all right!

I am a massive fan of the Barracks museum and make sure every visitor goes here to swing on the hammocks upstairs and get a real view into what life was like during the early colony. The audio guide is very helpful because the museum sometimes focuses less on artifacts and more on the building so it helps to have someone whispering in your ear where to look. The existing items on display perfectly evoke the period. They also have some hands on activities like period clothing you can try on which gets everyone in the mood to learn history.
If you are there near lunchtime be sure to try the cafe adjacent to the museum.

Let me take you back in time. Aaaaaaaaall the way back to...1996.

In 1996, my twelve-year old self came to Hyde Park Barracks Museum on a History excursion for school. Among the displays were countless artefacts discovered beneath the floorboards. One tiny object in particular, though, truly captivated me. A gnarly toenail clipping. I was grossed out and thoroughly impressed all at the same time. Here, right before me, was this fragment of a human being who had all but disappeared from the face of the earth. That toenail had downright obstinately refused to surrender to Time. Not even the glass betwixt myself and the gnarly toenail could ever dissever the closeness I now felt to the past. I was utterly rapt.

17 years later, I finally returned. Knowing that these sites tend to change a bit over the years in terms of exhibits, I had my doubts I'd see my ol' mate the magic, time-travelling toenail again when I went there today. I searched the rooms, hoping to find him...and there he was. Gnarly as ever. He even had some friends - a couple more nail clippings and a tooth!

I have the greatest admiration for the curators of this museum. This place is actually perfect. I really mean it. The work and research is obvious and nothing short of incredible. And the extra touches that put a zing! in my heartstrings really blow me away. Take, for example, the "ghost stair" at the entrance to the museum: an "abstract line tracing the handrail of the original stair." The audio guide asks you to look up and imagine the thousands of poor convicts who walked that ghostly staircase in days of yore. Spine-tingling stuff. And at the foot of the ghost stair, the penny really drops as to the whole logic behind the museum.

The three-storey structure allows the museum to simultaneously serve multiple, competing needs. Level 1 is a modern adaptation for exhibition where you can learn about the early history of the colony, try on a convict's suit, view enormous murals and survey interactive digital maps of Sydney's streets charting changes from "then" to "now." Level 2 starts to scratch away various layers of the building to reveal its multiple uses over time. And when you reach the top of the ghostly stair, at Level 3, the building is completely stripped back to its original condition and you find yourself in a theatrical reconstruction of the convict past, complete with soundscapes. As you walk down the hallway and into rooms containing rows and rows of replica convict hammocks (that you can hop in!) you hear the real, sad stories of convicts told to you in a thick Irish brogue. But it's when you get to a vast, empty whitewashed room containing nothing but convicts' silhouettes around the windows, (which provided an eerie white light), that the museum takes the experience to another level entirely. You feel like you have entered a memorial to those men who were packed in here like sardines and will forever be little more than shadowy silhouettes in our history. The body language captured in their silhouettes tells their collective story of woe. A more fitting memorial, I cannot imagine.

There is so much to see, you could easily spend the entire day here without even getting to the archaeology display in the Deputy Superintendent's Office, which is free to view.

My toenail anecdote of 1996 was more than just a bit o' whimsy. It is a testament to the importance of taking young people to museums like this, which are so affective and offer so much scope for the imagination. Y'see...I didn't know it then, but my encounter with that toenail turned out to be a key moment in my life: I ended up a colonial sensory historian.

* Review originally written and posted 8 December 2013.

A great museum; on the smallish size. Took me about an hour and a half to go through. Keep in mind i read every sign. They give you a handset to carry that can tell you more about certain exhibits.
I love history so I found this place to be delightfully charming and interesting. The staff were friendly and helpful!