Hyde Park Barracks

Came here with zero expectations but left 100/100 impressed! 🤯✨ It’s free to enter and comes with an audio guide 🎧 that automatically plays based on where you are in the building. Each room is beautifully designed and the storytelling is done in a narrative style — almost like a fairy tale 📖🗣️, which makes it super engaging and never boring. You’ll really get a sense of what life was like for convicts back then 🕰️🚪 Highly recommended for tourists and anyone curious about history and human stories 🙌🌍

Had 1 day in Sydney and came with our 2 girls (age 7 &9) to give them a bit of history before going to other less historical attractions. This place is amazing, I came years ago and it's very much upgraded since then. It's completely free and they give you headphones which detects your location and talks you through all the history as you move through the rooms. So interesting, it really brings the stories to life. We had to rush round a bit due to having so much on the agenda but could have spent a while there. The staff were also lovely!

It was a place recommended by a museum staff member, so I didn’t expect much — but it turned out to be absolutely incredible. The quality of the audio guide was excellent, and the realistic recreation of the past was truly impressive. This should definitely be a must-visit spot for anyone coming to Sydney!

One of the most extraordinary museums I have been to. The attention to detail is astonishing. Informative, engaging and deeply moving It sets the bar very high for what a museum can be. The audio tour is a must to fully engage with what history the curators are attempting to get across. Free entry, allow up to 90 minutes for the full audio tour

Amazing place to visit. so informative and educative. We learnt a lot about first nation people and first colony of Sydney here. Kids enjoyed it too. The displays are so beautiful and well maintained. Definitely worth a visit.

Great museum about the history of convict past. There are 3 floors, easily accessible, no entry fee. The audio tour will guide you through the displays, very well presented.

A very interesting day out. There are headphones available that tell you about each exhibit in the museum. An interesting lesson on how the city of Sydney was formed from the ground up

The staff are very friendly and the headset guided tour is excellent. The museum is clean and tidy. They do an excellent job, and entry is free, donations are accepted via tap and pay.

Amazing museum. The free audio guide is in stereo and the background sounds and noises all to the realism. Models and diarama's are excellent. Great museum to learn about the convict life in NSW

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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 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.

You will be lucky to get free entry to this establishment when the Sydney open house happens on this end of Macquarie Street; right through to Circular Quay on Australia Day. It is interesting if history is something that interests you. Remember Sydney was founded by convicts, and thus this establishment goes into the history of convicts. This building was where many of Sydney's convicts (in addition to Fort Denison) back in the colonial era had lived and slept. You will see an abundance of hammocks which were their beds at the time, as well as the dress each and every convict had to wear. It is interesting to look at all the visuals as well as walk through this massive house. Has stood the test of time when converted into a museum without losing any of the original heritage and foundations of Sydney in any way, shape or form. And it is also interesting to note the type of crimes that people had convicted back at those times to become convicts; of which a few of them seem quite petty today for many people. Interesting. If you check this out on any given Australia Day, expect it to be a bit crowded. Interesting locale.

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!

It's funny how the past often seems smaller than you expect. I wandered in here looking for some peace and quiet, and not having visited the actual museum since I was at school. The grounds are used as a music venue during the Sydney Festival and my sis and I spent an evening here having a religious experience watching the Throwing Muses play a couple of years ago. So I was surprised to walk in the doorway and be confronted by the size. Built in 1819 as a place to house male convicts (designed by the famous Francis Greenway), and later used as an Immigration Depot and as Law Courts, this had always been a central building in colonial Sydney, and it's painful to imagine the thousands of people who came through its surprisingly small doors. Makes the average inner-city student house seem spacious by comparison. The first floor of the museum and the grounds you can wander round for free, and the representation of the diggings makes you feel like you're in the midst of an archaeological site, 'ratacombs' and all. There's a display containing items from right the way through the building's history, from a whip 'designed' by a Superintendent (shudder) to sewing tools, each hook and eye precious, to a set of weights used to define the standards for the colony. Outside there's the tiny guardhouse, and on the right wall on the street, a moving art memorial to female immigrants escaping the Irish famine. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids and concessions, $20 for families. I'll leave you investigate the rest, one of the best sites to discover the convict history of Sydney.

Save time for this very interesting museum about the convict history of Sydney. It's very well presented. It also served as housing for young Irish orphaned girls during the devastating Great Rush Famine. The adjacent tea room is very good with plenty of seating inside and out Don't miss the famine memorial on the outside wall facing Hyde Park.

The story behind this museum is moving. Paying homage to the convicts that were exiled from Europe only to have them build and colonize the new land. This lesson in Australian history and culture is one that is so touching it had me thinking about it for days after while in my journey abroad. Get there if you can, the pictures are only the tip of the iceberg.

This place has to be one of the best museums I've ever been too. It was extremely engaging and innovative in helping visitors learn the history of Australia. The staff was extremely friendly and gave us a quick tour because we unfortunately only had an hour to go through the entire place. I've learned so much of the history of the Rocks and the prisoners and settlers of Australia at that time. I'm not kidding most engaging history museum. My husband was also in awe of the engaging screens. One of the rooms even had a recording of girls going to sleep. They had visualizations of the height of prisoners with their infractions on them. You could flip through the pages of a real journal of the prisoners. It was very informative and I learned a lot. Just wish we would have had more time, but I took pics of a lot of the information so I could learn more about it after

Even though my friend and I couldn't stay very long my friend and I managed to catch quite a bit of the tour and our guide was excellent! Very knowledgeable and animated. I love learning interesting and odd things and this tour had a lot of unique artifacts and stories that I really enjoyed

A quality museum to visit in Sydney. Excellent exhibition; a great look back of Sydney 's settlement history

The museum itself was nice and interesting. I am giving 1-star due to the unbelievably rude ticket salesman. Here is the story, my wife took our 3-year old into the gift shop while I paid the bill at the cafe (with my 7-year old). My wife bought admission for herself. I arrived with my 7 year old, and wanted to pay for a family admission. This request blew the ticket guy's mind. He initially refused to allow me to pay the difference between a family rate and what my wife paid. I did not care about the money, but it was the petty nature of this jerk. He told me, "this is not proper". Give me a break jerk, just refund the my wife and I will buy the family ticket. He told me families should all be together when buying tickets. Service is deplorable in Australia anyway, but this weirdo is one for the ages. If you hate customer service get another job!!

Great museum. Really gives you a new twist on Sydney and how it all started. Quality exhibits.

Entrance is $10, a good value for the museum. You get a walkie talkie-like audio tour guide, which was useful as I navigated the building. Lots of informational exhibits, about the history and also the preservation of the building, I enjoyed it, although I think my wife got a bit tired of it, haha. The third floor preserved with the hammocks is definitely creepy, gives you that feeling like they are still there.

Amazing trip down the long path of history. every nation has its history and this is the story of the convicts and the orphan women who helped build the city of Sydney. I loved the audio tour and learned so much about this history of Australia, which is a lot richer than the outback stories portrayed by Hollywood!

Historical Sydney picture perfect and friendly - this is a heritage site that offers a taste of Sydneys past. The barracks was one of the first buildings in Sydney and it still remains. There is rustic sandstone gravel all over the grounds and the cafe is opposite Hyde Park and the St Mary's Cathedral precinct. If you are catching public transport St James station has your nearest train. They are open 7 days a week and have a discount special for the workers in the area who regularly front up needing a morning coffee, not only do you get a loyalty card where the 10th one is free but you get $0.50 offs the normal price. On the weekend they offer breakfast till 3.30pm - and this is a devouring session of food by celebrated chef - 3 courses for a very reasonable $25 - start with bircher museli and fruit, then eggs 3 ways and finish with desert of Belgian chocolate waffles. The temptation was too much and I indulged - I must say. Weddings and functions are encouraged - this is a fantastic centre just waiting to host your next function.

An excellent way to learn the history of convicts "transported" to Australia. Many artifacts found under floorboards and in other hiding places are on display. Stories of women residents and a first-person account of what it was like to be flogged are particularly poignant.

You get to experience Australian history, it doesn't get much better than that! Thoroughly enjoyed my trip here, although it was six years ago, so a lot might have changed since then. But I went on a received a guided tour of the museum that was both fascinating and thorough. I would say it is a must-see for tourists going through Sydney.