Barracks Rat
Nineteenth century
Trying to get any sleep in the wards of Hyde Park Barracks must have been difficult at times due to the building’s infestation of rats. They ran along the floors and hammock rails and stole scraps of fabric, paper, rope and any soft materials they could find, to make their nests beneath the floorboards. Some, like this individual, even died in the underfloor spaces and in the dry environment, their carcasses were dessicated (dried up) and preserved for over a century before archaeologists discovered them in the early 1980s.
… in the night rats came by hundreds ; they even came into the bed, crept in at our breast, under the bed-clothes, and out at the feet, like a pack of hounds, and biting at our noses and ears all through the night.
Convict Joseph Lingard, Narrative of a Journey to and from New South Wales, 1846, p24
More artefacts
Convict Sydney
Objects
These convict-era objects and archaeological artefacts found at Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint (Rum Hospital) are among the rarest and most personal artefacts to have survived from Australia’s early convict period
Published on
Convict Sydney
Browse all
Convict Sydney
Bible & Prayer Book
The name and the date 1837 written inside the covers tell us they once belonged to an English brass founder named Thomas Bagnall
Convict Sydney
Jaw harp
This iron jaw harp was found by archaeologists at Hyde Park Barracks alongside other convict-era objects
Convict Sydney
Clock-winding crank
This sturdy crank was used for many years to wind the Hyde Park Barracks clock
Convict Sydney
Hack barrow
Convict brickmakers working at the Brickfields (now Haymarket) used hack barrows like this one, stacking 20 or 30 wet bricks on the timber palings along the top, for transporting them from the moulding table to the ‘hack’ yard for drying
Convict Sydney
Cupping glasses & scarificator
These cupping glasses are of the type that was used in the treatment of convict patients at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital
Convict Sydney
Convict gaming tokens
These bone, ceramic, and wooden gaming tokens appear to have been hand-carved by convicts from rubbish scraps and animal bones saved from their meals
Convict Sydney
What was convict assignment?
‘Assignment’ meant that a convict worked for a private landowner
Convict Sydney
Clay tobacco pipe
There were 1500 fragments of convict-era clay tobacco pipes recovered by archaeologists from Hyde Park Barracks
Convict Sydney
Cooking cauldron
The watery stew eaten by convicts at Hyde Park Barracks was boiled in giant communal cast iron pots
Convict Sydney
Clay tobacco pipes, repaired
Known as steamers to the convicts, these tobacco pipes have been repaired with resin and twine where their fragile stems broke