The Mint

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.