Today’s writing inspiration is a photo I took of the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney.
These barracks were designed by convict architect Francis Greenaway in 1818-19, originally as a place to house convicts. Since then they have also been a receiving depot for immigrants, an asylum, and law courts. And by imagining the lives of the people who used this building over nearly two centuries, we can be inspired with ideas and new thoughts.
Copyright © Matthew Wright 2014
Matthew Wright 
That’s a handsome building. I had to Google the architect Francis Greenaway, and his story alone would be a great topic for a historical novel. Colorful, talented character!
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It’s a remarkable place, redolent of its history. What relentlessly surprises me about old Sydney is the way that so much of it was a product of convict effort – including the architecture, in places. A lot of the reasons why people were convicted and transported in the late eighteenth century were trivial by later standards, and I have heard arguments to the effect that some of the charges were trumped, as a device for getting needed skills out to the colony.
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