Search our website and collections

Go direct to State Archives online indexesGo direct to State Archives catalogue

History

Two girls dressed in costume in large dormitory style room.
Virtual Excursion

A new home: female migrants at the Barracks

Learn about female Irish orphans who migrated to Australia in the 1800s and stayed at the Hyde Park Barracks

Woman in vdieo with overlay of activity sheet.

Activity: draw a convict from an indent

Watch this short video and learn how to use an original Convict Indent listing to draw a real convict

Kneeling man farewelling seated woman.

Activity: make your own convict love token

Learn about convict love tokens and some of the convicts at the Hyde Parks Barracks

Education programme at Hyde Park Barracks.
Onsite

Archaeology Underfoot

As they experience historical archaeology first hand, students learn to differentiate between the roles of historian and archaeologist

Building the railways in NSW

How significant was the arrival of the railway in NSW?

Child convicts of Australia - Chapter 1 Transportation and the First Fleet

Child convicts of Australia

For more than 50 years, convicts were transported from Britain to New South Wales. These included children as young as nine years of age

Students wearing dress up costumes and laughing in the nursery.
Onsite

Child's Play

Students learn about what it was like to live at Vaucluse House for the wealthy family of William Charles and Sarah Wentworth, with their ten children and many servants

Some kitchen items on the table in front of the fireplace
Onsite

Colonial Life at Elizabeth Farm

As they explore the Macarthur family home, which dates from 1793, students learn about the lives of the family and their convict servants and the impact of colonisation on the traditional owners of the Parramatta area

Children recreating a solitary confinement cell with foam bricks
Onsite

Convict Life at the Barracks

What was it like to be a convict living at the Hyde Park Barracks?