Australian Convict Sites

Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area. Credit Rob Nisbet

The sites span several climatic zones, from Mediterranean in the west to temperate in the south and sub-tropical in the mid-north, and were connected by a network of maritime routes throughout the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans.

The sites included in the serial listing are:

• Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island (1788–1814 and 1824–1855)
• Old Government House and Domain, Parramatta Park, New South Wales (1788–1856)
• Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, New South Wales (1819–1848)
• Brickendon and Woolmers Estates, Longford, Tasmania (1820–1850s)
• Darlington Probation Station, Maria Island National Park, Tasmania (1825–1832 and 1842–1850)
• Old Great North Road, Wisemans Ferry, New South Wales (1828–1835)
• Cascades Female Factory, South Hobart, Tasmania (1828–1856)
• Port Arthur Historic Site, Port Arthur, Tasmania (1830–1877)
• Coal Mines Historic Site, Norfolk Bay, Tasmania (1833–1848)
• Cockatoo Island Convict Site, Sydney, New South Wales (1839–1869)
• Fremantle Prison, Fremantle, Western Australia (1852–1886)

Visit Australian Convict Sites

The transportation of convicts to Australia, which has been described as ‘the greatest penal experiment of all time,’ represented the largest forced exile of citizens at the behest of a European government in modern history.

British transportation to Australia was the world’s first conscious attempt to build a new society on the labour of convicted prisoners, where over a period of 80 years between 1787 and 1868 more than 160,000 male and female convicts arrived in Australia.

Collectively the Australian Convict Sites is of Outstanding Universal Values (OUV) to the world, which means the Australian Convict Sites so exceptional, as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity.