I visited this WHS in January 2018. Of the 11 inscribed sites, 5 are scattered around Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Port Arthur and the Cascades Female Factory are the ones which attract most crowds as they cater for cruise ship tours and are among the closest to Hobart too. The highlight sites in Tasmania were the Brickendon and Woolmers Estates. While in Sydney we bought the Sydney Museums Pass, took a ferry to Cockatoo Island and then allowed around 2 hours to visit the Hyde Park Barracks Museum (just a short walk from the Sydney Opera House).

Reading up prior to visiting this WHS will certainly help to better understand and appreciate its national importance and perhaps its OUV. During the 80 years between 1787 and 1868, some 166,000 men, women and children were transported to Australia as convicts. This mass shift of population or forced migration to Australia was part of a global phenomenon associated with the punishment of crime, in this instance controlled by the British government. This phenomenon, known as convictism, dates back to the early 17th century and occured in many parts of the world with Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Russia and Argentina all transporting criminals to locations across the globe.

In Australia today there are more than 3000 convict sites remaining, all representing different aspects of convictism. However, the 11 inscribed sites are considered to be outstanding examples of convictism in Australia. They spread from Freemantle in the west to Norfolk Island in the east, from the middle of New South Wales to the depths of Tasmania's south. If I were to choose one site out of the 7 we visited to have a general overview of this WHS, I'd recommend visiting Hyde Park Barracks Museum. It is a unique museum and the building itself should be regarded as a museum of itself, directly related to its historic uses.

Conditions in Britain led to a huge increase in the number of convicts sent to the colony after 1815. Built to hold 600 men, at times the Barracks housed up to 1300 people. Many traces of convict life remain. Inked into shipping ledgers and court records are minute personal details of men, women and children - their scars and tatoos, names and aliases, crimes and sentences. But there are also stories of opportunity, new lives and family. Most convicts served their sentences and blended into society as 'free' citizens.

They carried out every type of task from skilled trades to labouring. They loaded ships and carted cargo, repaired tools and boats, cut and rolled logs, built dwellings and made clothing. Some were assigned to work for the government and slept in barracks and dorms like the one in Hyde Park (left photo) while others worked and lived in homesteads like the ones in Tasmania (right photo) under a private master or mistress. In 1849 the last convicts were removed from the barracks and incarcerated on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour (easily reachable from Circular Quay Terminal). Convicts were sent to Tasmania until 1853 and the final convict vessel landed in Western Australia in 1868. Nowadays it is estimated that one in ten Australians has a convict ancestor.

The Brickendon and Woolmers Estates were established in the early 1820s by the combined labours of convicts and their masters. These are easily reached by rental car from the Heritage Highway and are a very pleasant stopover to/from Cradle Mountain National Park. You can actually sleep in both of them and have the places for yourself before/after visiting hours (closed on Mondays). Even though I haven't visited Sweden's decorated farmhouses, from what I've seen/read online, the experience is rather similar with an idyllic agricultural/natural setting. For me it was a convenient stop to leave early in the morning to visit Cradle Mountain National Park, but also an interesting way to appreciate the two opposite kinds of relationships between the convicts and their masters - one of floggings and brutality, the other (here) of mutual tolerance and shared labour. Make sure to ask for a combined ticket if you intend to visit both sites. A new interpretation centre is being built near the Woolmers Estate and it is worth going for a walk from the pump house and windmills to the national rose garden.