Government blanket fragments
1819–1848
These fragments of a natural-coloured woollen cloth are thought to be from a government issue blanket, used by convicts in the Barracks sleeping wards. Found by archaeologists beneath the floors of Hyde Park Barracks, these fragments have a coarse weave, and a couple of pieces show that the blanket had a thin brown woven stripe. Barracks blankets were stamped with the government ‘broad arrow’ and the date they were issued, and were most likely made in the colony by female convicts at the Parramatta Female Factory, using locally grown wool. And while the convicts in the Barracks were keeping warm under these blankets, from 1826, these same blankets were also issued annually to Aboriginal people. A painting of Cora Gooseberry at Camp Cove in 1845 shows her wrapped in the same sort of natural coloured blanket with a thin border stripe along one edge. In 1844 the government stopped its blanket hand-outs to Aboriginal people, and Port Hacking man William Annan who came into Sydney in winter that year, probably to receive his blanket, died of exposure near the Barracks, in Hyde Park.
Published on
Related
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
Learning resources
Explore our range of online resources designed by teachers to support student learning in the classroom or at home