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 Cockatoo Island Grain Silos, Cockatoo Island, Sydney, NSW: On the summit of Cockatoo Island, four kilometres west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stand the remains of a convict prison built by Gov. Bourke in 1833 and used for that purpose until 1909. Close by are 20 of Australia's earliest public grain silos, in their original condition but empty as they have been for over 150 years. Built as the colony's first government grain silos by convicts stationed at the island's prison by Gov. Gipps in 1839-40, the bottle shaped silos were chiselled down by hand out of the island's bedrock. Each cavern is 9 metres deep and 6 metres in diameter at its base and held 3,000 - 5,000 bushels (84 to 140 tonnes). Completed in 1841, they were an engineering marvel of their day. The top entrance of one of the silos is the dark patch in the centre foreground in the photograph. The circular depression around indicates the size and shape of one of the silos. Amazingly, the British Government ordered their closure just months after they were brought into use and they have remained empty, apart from discarded rum bottles thrown in by soldiers stationed on the island to guard the convicts, which were removed in the 1980s.
This group of silos consists of three complete and two half (the half ones were "halved" by excavation of the cliff face during World War II). The perfectly symmetrical silos are bottle-shaped, and an incision on the surface of the rock indicates the diameter of the silo below ground. The mouth is square and provided with a lip to exclude water; there is also a metal plate over the mouth. The 'bottle' is circular in plan and approaching 5.5 metres in diameter. The silos held from 3000 to 5000 bushels of grain each. Visible evidence of thirteen silos remains on the island.
Location: Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, Sydney, NSW.
 Newcastle Convict built lumber yard, Newcastle, NSW: After a short lived settlement in 1801, a small penal outpost was established here in 1804 for convicts who committed secondary offences - including those responsible for the Rum Rebellion. The site became a keeping place for coal, timber and lime produced by the convicts. In 1823, many of the convicts were moved to Port Macquarie but a small workforce stayed on to work the coal mines. The site continued to be used as a stockade. In 1832 its main building was turned into a barracks for those working on the breakwater (Macquarie’s Pier) and two guard houses were built. In 1847, convict use of the site ceased with the completion of the breakwater. Location: 90 Scott Street, Newcastle, NSW.
 Variety Bay Pilot Station, Bruny Island, Tas: One of the earliest Pilot Stations in Australia, being established in 1831 using convict labour. The site includes foundations of three discernable buildings; a bakers oven, a rock and brick lined cellar and a rock walled watch tower; and evidence of a garden in front of the homestead. A nearby kiln site is where the bricks used for the pilot station were made by convicts and fired on site. Remnants of three kiln foundations and clay pit remain. The last set of bricks fired in the 1850's were dismantled in the 1950's and transferred to Adventure Bay to build the Bligh Museum of Pacific Exploration. The museum was constructed to the same design as St Peters Church, Variety Bay. Location: Variety Bay, Bruny Island, Tas.
 Saltwater River Coal Mine, Norfolk Bay, Tas: the mines at Saltwater River were established in 1833 to mine coal and to provide secondary punishment for re-offending convicts. The coal mines were an outstation of the Port Arthur penal settlement and were intended to be the most severe form of punishment for re-offending convicts, short of capital punishment. The Coal Mines are the only surviving penal coal mines in Australia, they were the first commercials mine in Tasmania and one of the first in Australia, and they played a major role in the economic development of the new colony. The mines contain the beds and footings of the winding and pumping machinery installed in 1845 which represent the earliest pit top workings in Australia. The site includes remnants of two mine shafts, extant prison complexes, wharves, farms, tramways, quarries, garden plots, constable stations, semaphore stations, cemeteries and other remains spread across the peninsula. Location: at the northern end of the Tasman Peninsula, approximately 112 kms by road south-east of Hobart.
 Norfolk Bay Convict Outstation and Human Railway Terminus, Taranna, Tas: Taranna was the terminus for a human railway which ran between the jetty at Little Norfolk Bay and the prison. It was designed to carry passengers and supplies unloaded at Norfolk Bay and saved the ships the hazardous journey around Cape Raoul. It was the first railway in Australia and probably the only one using human horsepower along the seven kilometre line. Location: 90-minutes’ drive south-east (89 kilometres/55 miles) Hobart on the A9 Highway.
 Highfield House, Circular Head, Tas: thus site can be regarded as the 'birthplace' of European settlement in Tasmania's north-west. It was built from 1832-35 as a residence for Edward Curr, chief agent of the Van Diemen's Land Company. The history of the north-west region of Tasmania is inextricably bound up with the story of the Van Diemen's Land Company; indeed, there are very few places in the region that have been unmarked by its presence. A small band of Van Diemen's Land Company personnel first arrived at Circular Head in October 1826 aboard the Tranmere, together with livestock, supplies and equipment. Indentured labourers brought out from Britain and 41 assigned convicts made up the bulk of the company's workforce. The Highfield Historic Site is open for public inspection from 10am - 4pm seven days a week during September to May, and from June to August the site is open Monday to Friday from 10am - 4pm, closed weekends. Location: Circular Head, Stanley, Tas. More ...
 Lisdillon salt works, Little Swanport, Tas: this salt works were one of a number of small scale, speculative works established in Van Diemens Land to meet colonial needs. The Site is one of only two early salt manufacture works in eastern Australia where substantial remains can still be found (the other being at Norfolk Island). The ruins here form an intriguing and highly significant part of the industrial heritage of Tasmania and Australia. Although they operated only briefly in the late 1830s, the salt works established by James Radcliff at 'Lisdillon' were well-constructed and technologically innovative. Location: The Lisdillon Salt Works lies on the east coast of Tasmania, near the town of Little Swanport. They are situated on Saltworks Road which joins the Tasman Highway (A3) between Boomer Creek (to the south) and Lisdillon Rivulet (to the north), approximately 24 km south of Swansea, Tas. More ...
 Sarah Island Penal Settlement, Macquarie Harbour, Tas: The Penal Settlement at Macquarie Harbour was known in its time as an 'Earthly Hell', as it was located far away from any of the settled areas, and surrounded by forest on the west coast of Tasmania. The labour on which most of the 1,150 convicts were employed was exhausting (from dawn until dusk, six days a week), and use of the lash was frequent. Convicts stationed here lived upon Sarah and Grummet Islands, and worked around the harbour and up the Gordon River from 1822-1833. The main settlement was located on Sarah Island although newly arrived convicts and those sentenced to work in irons were housed in a miserable building on a detached and wind swept outcrop of rock. More ...
Eagle Farm Women’s Prison and Factory, Eagle Farm, Qld: Commandant Logan established a farm at Eagle Farm in 1829, four years after the establishment of the Moreton Bay penal colony. Women convicts were subsequently sent to this site which became known as the Eagle Farm Women’s Prison and Factory. In 1839 the prison was closed and the site was subsequently used for growing citrus fruits, some other crops and for grazing. The Eagle Farm Women’s Prison and Factory Site is a significant archaeological site, one of only seven sites of secondary punishment remaining in Australia. It is one of Australia’s five sites of female houses of correction, and one of a small number of convict sites remaining in Queensland of which surviving original fabric has been identified, albeit as an archaeological deposit.
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