The Mint
Colonial hospital wing funded by rum, later reborn as the first Royal Mint branch outside England.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to The Mint in Sydney starts in 1810, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie struck a rum monopoly to fund a convict hospital, and follows what that bargain cost the patients inside it, from botched surgeries to a nickname the wards earned from locals. You'll hear about the cedar-columned south wing that still stands today, and a secret about its construction that stayed hidden for over a century. Listen facing the surviving colonnade, with your back to the entrance.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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