Step back in time to experience the brutal reality of Australia's earliest penal colonies. This documentary explores the harrowing everyday lives of prisoners forced to survive in one of the most hostile environments on Earth. From the suffocating, rat-infested dormitories of Hyde Park Barracks to the freezing solitary confinement cells of Cockatoo Island, we examine the extreme conditions that defined 19th-century convict settlements. Alongside the shocking architectural history of these prisons, we also examine Captain James Cook's 1770 voyage on the Endeavour and the tragic, lasting impact that European colonization had on Indigenous Australians. Prepare to explore the dark and scandalous history of how forced labor built a modern metropolis.
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