These Georgian-style barracks were designed in 1819 by the convict and architect Francis Greenway. They were built by convicts and inhabited by prisoners. These days they house relics from those early days in modern displays, including log books, early settlement artifacts, and a room full of ships’ hammocks in which visitors can lie and listen to fragments of prisoner conversation. If you are interested in Sydney’s early beginnings, I highly recommend a visit. The displays are far more straightforward that those at the Museum of Sydney. The courtyard cafe is excellent.