On history’s page
Australia’s 20 World Heritage-listed sites range from the obvious — Kakadu, Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Purnululu National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef — to the more obscure, such as Willandra Lakes, the fossil mammal sites at Riversleigh and Naracoorte and the most recent addition, the Budj Bim aquaculture system devised and used for more than 6000 years by the Gunditjmara people of south-eastern Australia. Structures are also included as Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building and the Sydney Opera House are on the list. But perhaps the most significant in terms of Australian colonial history was the addition in 2010 of 11 places known collectively as the Australian Convict Sites.
As the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) entry observed, British transportation of convicts to Australia was the world’s first conscious attempt to build a new society on prison labour. Michael Ellis, the head
