Designed by convict architect Francis Greenway, the barracks has housed nearly 100,000 convict prisoners, immigrant women, and even asylum inmates over its 200 year history. It's now a heritage museum telling the story of its former residents, and their impact on the Aboriginal communities around them, through a state-of-the-art immersive experience.
Visitors have 90 minutes to take audio-led, self-guided tours of the space. Through location-activated headphones, they hear soundscapes and first-person narratives taken from diaries, newspapers and other historical records. The technology really brings to life the complex history of the UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as its impressive collection of more than 4,000 objects recovered from the site by archaeologists.