Travel Pick: Pop Culture and Cinema in Australia
Convict hulks: Life on the prison ships

In 1776, with its American colonies fighting for independence and its jails overflowing, the British government began converting old ships into floating prisons or ‘hulks’ to house convicts sentenced to transportation.

Convict hulks is the first comprehensive exhibition recalling the harsh but fascinating history of convict hulks in Britain and its colonies, including New South Wales. It features more than 600 rare artefacts recovered from beneath the mooring site of the Dromedary hulk in Bermuda, brought to Australia just for this exhibition.

Discover what it was like on a prison ship. Hear stories of convicts’ lives. Step inside a re-created punishment box. Try on some ankle irons. Experience sights and sounds that evoke the daily lives of the hulks’ wretched human cargo.