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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Government House stables 1842

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Government House stables 1842

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From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a928831 / DG 51]

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Appears in

Built environment First Government House

Subjects

Adaptive reuse Music Public building Universities and Colleges Zoological and Botanical Gardens

Buildings

Sydney Conservatorium of Music building

Places

Royal Botanic Gardens

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Martens, Conrad

State Library of New South Wales

Built environment

Built over tracks, campsites, rock art and middens used for thousands of years before the dispossession of the Aboriginal people, Sydney's early haphazard development was given form by public buildings. As public transport developed, suburbs spread, and throughout the twentieth century, town planners struggled with developers to direct the form and extent of the city. After World War II, city buildings got taller, outer suburbs sprang up ever further away, and issues of heritage and architecture were contested. In the twenty-first century, concerns about environment, urban density, public transport and renewed infrastructure are driving change.

First Government House

A two-storey brick house, Government House was the most impressive building in the early colony. It was not well-built however, and required frequent repairs. Plans to replace it were first suggested in 1817, but the new Government House was not completed until 1845.

Adaptive reuse

Public building

Universities and Colleges

Zoological and Botanical Gardens

Music

Sydney Conservatorium of Music building

full record »

Designed by Francis Greenway as stables for the Government House that had been commissioned by Governor Macquarie in 1816, the building became the Conservatorium in 1916.

Royal Botanic Gardens

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Harbourside gardens that combine scientific research with recreation for Sydneysiders.