Hyde Park Barracks & Parliament

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Hyde Park Barracks & Parliament House

We had planned to visit both Parliament House and Hyde Park Barracks during our stay and as they are both situated in the same central location of the CBD we combined the two.

We went first to Parliament House where there was another guided tour.
It has been the seat of government (state), since the 1820s.
The current building contains the chambers for both houses of parliament, as well as parliamentary offices.

The tour began in the lower chamber and we were given an informative talk mainly concerning the legislative meetings and the protocol for members of the house. The tour guide explained that the Lower House is Australia’s oldest legislative chamber and most bills and government business are introduced here.

Moving on to the Upper House we saw how the colours of the Chambers follow the British tradition of green for the Lower House and red for the Upper House.
There followed more explanations relating to the work of the Upper House before we headed out to the Jubilee Room where you can see parliamentary memorabilia.

The corrugated iron building with a cast iron façade tacked on at the southern end was a pre-fabricated kit from England. It was originally intended as a chapel for the gold fields, but was diverted from this purpose and sent to Sydney. In 1856 this dismantled kit became the chamber for the new Legislative Council. We saw the original packing cases as they are used to line the chamber.

Hyde Park Barracks

From the Parliament buildings we made our way to the Hyde Park Barracks and spent the afternoon browsing the very interesting museum.

The barracks were completed in 1819 by convict labour and designed to house 600 convicts. The building housed in turn Irish orphans and single female immigrants, before becoming courts and legal offices.

It was refurbished in 1990 and reopened as a museum on the history of the site and its occupants.

The displays included a room reconstructed as convict quarters of the 1820s as well as pictures, artefacts and models.

There is also access to the original confinement cell area where you can look out over the now serene courtyard, once the scene of brutal floggings.

We also saw a reconstructed convict dormitory, complete with hammocks!

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