When convict transportation to New South Wales ended in 1848 the colony was in desperate need of women - as workers, servants and mothers. To correct this social imbalance, young women in Britain were encouraged to emigrate, initially from famine-starved Ireland. After the final few convicts were transferred to Cockatoo Island and the old hammock rails removed, the Immigration Office took charge of the Barracks. Dormitories filled with iron beds were fitted out upstairs while an employment office and interview room was set up on the ground floor.  

Between 1848 and 1886 thousands of immigrant women and sometimes their children were processed through the barracks, overseen by immigration officials, matron and clergy and sent forth into the colony.  

After 1862, the level 3 wards took on a new role, housing frail and destitute women under government care. Hundreds of chronically sick, homeless or insane women sought refuge here before 1886, entering the building through a rear flight of stairs, carefully segregated from the younger women downstairs.