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Dictionary of Sydney

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Foundation plate of the first Government House

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Foundation plate of the first Government House

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Sydney Living Museums

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The first Government House: building on Phillip’s ‘good foundation’

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First Government House

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Foundation plate of the first Government House

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Sydney Living Museums

Sydney Living Museums is the trading name of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, a statutory authority formed in 1980. It is one of the largest state museums in Australia and is entrusted with the care of key historic buildings and sites in New South Wales.

The first Government House: building on Phillip’s ‘good foundation’

The first Government House was not a simple singular structure but a complex with a yard, outbuildings, guardhouse, garden and greater domain. It was a home, an office and a venue for public and private entertaining, but also a symbol of British authority, with all that that meant to different people, both then and now.

First Government House

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Residence for the first nine Governors of NSW, which was the first major building in the colony. The first permanent building in the colony, it had two storeys built of bricks and stone comprising six rooms, two cellars and a rear staircase. In front of the house was a garden where many imported plant species were grown and the first orchard planted. The Museum of Sydney, on the corner of Bridge and Phillip Streets, was built on its site.

Foundation plate of the first Government House

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Engraved copper plate laid by Governor Phillip in May 1788 with the foundation stone of the first Government House building. In 1899 it was was unearthed beneath the Bridge Street footpath by a man working on the telephone tunnel system. lt is now on display in the Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House.