Australian Convict Sites - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Great to see that UNESCO has listed a number of Australian convict sites as being heritage sites... They are listed here, among them Port Arthur, Fremantle, etc. including many very familiar places.

Do you have convicts among your ancestors? If so, where were they? Mine were at Port Jackson...Sydney, NSW.
Just to mention a couple...

http://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/australia-day-2013-blog-challenge.html

"The property includes a selection of eleven penal sites, among the thousands established by the British Empire on Australian soil in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The sites are spread across Australia, from Fremantle in Western Australia to Kingston and Arthur's Vale on Norfolk Island in the east; and from areas around Sydney in New South Wales in the north, to sites located in Tasmania in the south. Around 166,000 men, women and children were sent to Australia over 80 years between 1787 and 1868, condemned by British justice to transportation to the convict colonies. Each of the sites had a specific purpose, in terms both of punitive imprisonment and of rehabilitation through forced labour to help build the colony. The Australian Convict Sites presents the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts."

For the full article, including gallery, maps and descriptions, please visit


http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1306