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  3. Convict Barrack Sydney N.S. Wales c1819

Convict Barrack Sydney N.S. Wales c1819

By
George William Evans (attributed)
From the collections of the
State Library of New South Wales
[a1120005 / PX*D 41, 5]
(Mitchell Library)

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Convicts Prisons Residential building
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Hyde Park Barracks

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Evans, George William (attributed)

State Library of New South Wales

Built environment

Built over tracks, campsites, rock art and middens used for thousands of years before the dispossession of the Aboriginal people, Sydney's early haphazard development was given form by public buildings. As public transport developed, suburbs spread, and throughout the twentieth century, town planners struggled with developers to direct the form and extent of the city. After World War II, city buildings got taller, outer suburbs sprang up ever further away, and issues of heritage and architecture were contested. In the twenty-first century, concerns about environment, urban density, public transport and renewed infrastructure are driving change.

Economy

With the arrival of Europeans, the traditional economy of Aboriginal clans was disrupted, and gave way to the convict economy of the Commissariat and government stores. But this closed economy was soon opened by free settlement, whaling and sealing, shipping and farming success, making Sydney the port for a vast hinterland. Depressions and booms alternated, bringing poverty and prosperity to the city. Sydney's growth and diversity mean that regional economies now exist within the Sydney region.

Convicts

Prisons

Residential building

Hyde Park Barracks

full record »

Georgian brick building at the southern end of Macquarie Street. Designed by colonial architect Francis Greenway to house male convicts, it subsequently became an immigration depot, government asylum, law courts and museum.