SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Australia has nominated 11 prisons and other sites linked to its convict past for World Heritage listing as symbols of the nation, the government said Wednesday (January 30th).

The sites were memorials to "a harsh colonial experiment" - the forced migration between 1787 and 1868 of 166,000 men, women and children from Britain to a largely unknown land, said Heritage Minister Peter Garrett.

"This compelling story of more than 160,000 convicts sent to a vast and alien landscape... that is our living heritage," Garrett told reporters.

"Exiled forever from the crowded land they knew, crossing the ocean to an unfamiliar land in a harsh colonial experiment, most never to see their birthplace again, and yet these convicts and their successors laid the foundation of the Australian spirit that we have today.

"The grit, the determination to beat the odds, the laconic humour, the sheer will to make a go of it made them free men and free women and some of them leading citizens."

Garrett was speaking at one of the sites nominated for UNESCO's World Heritage list, Fremantle Prison near the western city of Perth.

Other sites include Cockatoo Island and the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, the Kingston and Arthur's Vale historic area at Norfolk Island and the Port Arthur historic site in Tasmania.

Australia's convict heritage was once regarded here as an embarassment but more recently it has been embraced with a rebellious pride.

"For Australians, finding a convict ancestor is the Holy Grail," said Society of Australian Genealogists executive officer Heather Garnsey.

The iconic Sydney Opera House achieved World Heritage status last year, but most of Australia's other listed sites are natural features, such as the Great Barrier Reef.