EARLIEST CONVICT CELLS FOUND BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS ON COCKATOO ISLAND - WORLD HERITAGE NOMINATION LIKELY

peter.veth@anu.edu.au

On Cockatoo Island, archaeologists have unearthed two small convict cells which had been sealed and forgotten about for over a century. They represent the only surviving intact example of solitary confinement architecture on the Australian mainland. They were reserved for convicts from Norfolk Island who had then been moved to Cockatoo island for hard labour and had subsequently transgressed yet once more. The cells were cut beneath the original convict barracks in the 1840s and were blocked off by the construction of a road in the 1890s. The cells are less then 2m in width and height being dark, very cramped and extremely damp. The significant find will, according to Federal Minister Peter Garrettt, add weight to World Heritage Listing for the island.