The 34th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, meeting in Brazil, has added 11 Australian convict sites to its World Heritage List.

The Australian Convict Sites grouped application, which was made jointly by Federal and State Governments, was one of seven additions made to the list this weekend.

Five of the 11 convict sites are in Tasmania, four in NSW, with one each for Western Australia and Norfolk Island:

§ Brickendon Estate and Woolmers Estate, northern Tasmania.

§ Darlington Probation Station, Maria Island, eastern Tasmania.

§ Cascades Female Factory, Hobart.

§ Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula, southern Tasmania.

§ Coal Mines Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula, southern Tasmania.

§ Old Government House and Domain, Sydney.

§ Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney.

§ Old Great North Road, from Wisemans Ferry and Mount Manning, in eastern NSW, between Sydney and the Hunter Valley.

§ Cockatoo Island Convict Site, Sydney

§ Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island

§ Fremantle Prison.

On its website, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre notes:

“The property includes a selection of 11 penal sites, among the thousands established by the British Empire on Australian soil in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are located on the fertile coastal strip from which the Aboriginal peoples were then forced back, mainly around Sydney and in Tasmania, as well as on Norfolk Island and in Fremantle.

“They housed tens of thousands of men, women and children 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 property presents the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts.”

The other sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage List this weekend are:

§ At Turaif District in ad-Dir'iyah (Saudi Arabia): This property was the first capital of the Saudi Dynasty, in the heart of the Arabian Penisula, north-west of Riyadh. Founded in the 15th century, it bears witness to the Najdi architectural style, which is specific to the centre of the Arabian  peninsula.

§ Jantar Mantar (India): The Jantar Mantar, in Jaipur, is an astronomical observation site built in the early 18th century. It includes a set of some 20 main fixed instruments. It is an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period.

§ Sheikh Safi al-Din Khanegah and Shrine Ensemble in Ardabil (Islamic Republic of Iran): Built between the beginning of the 16th century and the end of the 18th century, this place of spiritual retreat in the Sufi tradition uses Iranian traditional architectural forms to maximize use of available space to accommodate a variety of functionsIt constitutes a rare ensemble of elements of medieval Islamic architecture.

§ Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex (Islamic Republic of Iran): Tabriz has been a place of cultural exchange since antiquity and its historic bazaar complex is one of the most important commercial centres on the Silk Road. It is one of the most complete examples of the traditional commercial and cultural system of Iran.

§ Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands): After the displacement of the local inhabitants, 67 nuclear tests were carried out from 1946 to 1958, including the explosion of the first H-bomb (1952). Through its history, the atoll symbolises the dawn of the nuclear age, despite its paradoxical image of peace and of earthly paradise.

§ Historic Villages of Korea: Hahoe and Yangdong (Republic of Korea): Founded in the 14th–15th centuries, Hahoe and Yangdong are seen as the two most representative historic clan villages in the Republic of Korea.

*NOTE: I chose to include this item in our Art & Museum section because many of the 11 convict sites to act as museums. I could just as easily have put the item in our Tourism section, and will endeavour to publish some items on travelling to these destinations — John Rozentals

Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area ... Quality Row, Kingston, Norfolk Island. Image: Mark Mohell.

The Great Road ... Buttressed retaining wall on Devines Hill. Photo: A. Hutchings DECC.