A collection of artefacts found in Bermuda's waters is now on exhibit at Sydney's Hyde Park Barracks Museum, one of the most respected convict heritage sites in the world.

The display is the culmination of decades of research by local divers Michael Davis and Chris Addams, who together retrieved more than 2,500 convict-related items from waters off Dockyard including military buttons, badges, regimental pieces and items carved by hand out of Bermuda flowstone.

Australia's Historic Houses Trust (HHT) ¿ which operates the Hyde Park Barracks Museum ¿ offered to hold a two-year exhibit of the collection after Mr. Addams' daughter Rhiannon gave a presentation hosted by the University of Tasmania and the International Centre for Convict Studies a few years ago.

A Bermudian living in Perth, she spoke before representatives of historical and archaeological institutions around the world.

Convict Hulks: Life on the Prison Ships had its official opening early in August. A few snags along the way might have prevented that, however, were it not for the intervention of Premier Ewart Brown.

"I have to give big thanks to the Premier," said Mr. Addams. "Back in January I applied directly to him and his secretary came back to me within two weeks, saying it was okay for the exhibit to go ahead."

Although protected by the Dromedary Trust ¿ its name taken from one of the "vermin-ridden, rat-infested" hulks that housed hordes of convicts here ¿ Mr. Addams said he felt it appropriate official sanction was given before the artefacts were moved off the island as they belong to all of Bermuda.

The troubles didn't end once he received the go-ahead, however. Less than a week before the exhibit's planned opening in Australia, the artefacts remained in Bermuda, mired in bureaucratic red tape.

"The customs people in Australia are probably the strictest in the world," Mr. Addams said. "And when it comes to items made of wood, of bone, etc., they (really) go over them. We wanted to go early in anticipation that everything would have to be quarantined."

The diver postponed two flights waiting to see the collection ready for travel.

"We were in utter panic," he recalled. "But again I have to thank Carla Hayward in Government Archives and Dr. Brown. He gave the okay for the exhibition to go to Sydney on a Wednesday. It went straight on a freight plane to London and from there, on an express freight to Sydney, where it arrived Friday evening."

Passage went equally smoothly at the other end. According to Mr. Addams, Australian customs officers and representatives from the HHT worked from midnight until 10 a.m. the following morning to ensure the date set for the collection's official opening would be met, "because they knew it was incredibly important".

It was a view his daughter had taken in an interview with the Mid-Ocean News earlier this year as she explained why Australia would be interested in a collection culled from the Atlantic.

"In my opinion, one of the significant things that the Bermuda collection brings, is that in Australia the physical items of the convict heritage are things that the convicts made because they were convicts ¿ the buildings they were instructed to make, the paintings they were instructed to paint, the furniture they were instructed to do. They were all created because they were convict slaves.

"The Dromedary convict collection is significant because these are the things the convict made because he was still a man, because he was still a person, because he still had that spirit, rather than as a sign of their indenture."

The British Government established convict hulks at many of its colonies including Bermuda, New South Wales and Tasmania. Bermuda was considered the most brutal of all the establishments. The Dromedary was sent to Bermuda as a convict hulk in 1826. The vessel, which had formerly been used as convict transport to Australia's colonies, remained moored here for nearly 40 years. Of the 9,000 convicts sent here, close to 2,000 died.

In 1982, Mr. Addams and Mr. Davis received permission to excavate the hulk's anchorage area, finding scores of items reflecting convict life in that period.

"For me and Mike (the exhibit) is the culmination of 25 years of fighting for recognition of what these people put into Bermuda's history. It's a forgotten aspect of our past," Mr. Addams stated. "They built the Dockyard, they built all the forts. They were a totally expendable force. Twenty or 30 died, they said, we'll send over more, no problem.

"They're all buried outside sanctified ground ¿ on Watford Island where they sit outside the walls of the main graveyard."

Mr. Addams said he felt Bermudians would be proud of the exhibit ¿ which includes a sidebar on the island itself.

"It was just downright incredible ¿ they have really done Bermuda well. The Dromedary material was the main exhibit in the old Convict Barracks, which are kept in a pristine condition by the (HHT). On the opening night they laid on actors and actresses in period costume complete with redcoats in uniform.

"And to walk into the exhibit was stunning for on one wall you had the satellite image of Bermuda on its lonely underwater mountain pedestal and on the other wall, a six-foot-by-two image of the old Dockyard circa 1848, depicting the hulks in place. I was shown four prints of convicts in situ and then asked what I thought about them ¿ it took me a few seconds to realise they were taken in Bermuda. The backdrop of a Bermuda sailing craft is very recognisable."

Once the exhibit has run its course at the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Mr. Addams said there was hope it would travel to other parts of the world.

"They want to set up exhibits in Perth, in Tasmania. What we're hoping is it will become a truly travelling showpiece for Bermuda and its underwater maritime history. So it doesn't stop there."

The exhibit runs through July 26, 2009. For more information visit www.hht.net.au or, for details on the Dromedary Trust, www.convicthulks.com.