Convict Precinct - Cockatoo Island - World Heritage Sites on Waymarking.com

Cockatoo Island was created as a penal settlement in 1839 for re-offending convicts. It was an ideal location for hard labour - isolated and secure, easy to provision, yet close to the heart of the colony's major population centre. Convicts quarried massive areas of sandstone, excavated and helped to build a dockyard (along with colonial prisoners) and constructed about 20 underground grain silos. Some were sentenced to solitary confinement in underground cells built into the sheer sandstone cliffs. After the abolition of transportation to NSW (1840), Cockatoo Island operated as a penal settlement for convicts completing their sentences and for ex-convict and other colonial prisoners.

The site includes convict-built buildings and structures surrounded by sheer cliffs that drop sharply down to the dockyard area. Buildings include convict barracks, a hospital, mess hall which also functioned as a chapel and schoolroom, grouped together under the surveillance of the nearby military guard house, solitary cells and military officers' quarters. Openings to underground rock silos can be seen at ground level and two and a half silos are exposed from prior quarrying. Together, the buildings tell the story of the harsh living conditions, hard labour of public work and efforts to reform in the convict era.

In 2010 the Cockatoo Island Convict Site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List with 10 other heritage sites nationwide. Collectively known as the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property, these sites feature outstanding examples of convict era structures.

Type: Building Reference number: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1306-010

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