Skip to main content

The Dictionary of Sydney
Multimedia
View of the governor's house at Sydney in Port ...

View of the governor's house at Sydney in Port Jackson New South Wales Jan'y 1791

By

William Bradley

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.pic-an3329075-1]

Search

Browse

Browse
- Artefacts
- Buildings
- Events
- Natural Features
- Organisations
- People
- Places
- Structures
- Entries
- Multimedia
- Subjects
- Roles
- Contributors

Connections

Appears in

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

Subjects

Colonial architecture Gardening Public building Residential building

Buildings

First Government House

Footer

Home
About
Copyright
Contact

Footer Secondary

Contribute
Donate

Bradley, William

First lieutenant on HMS Sirius, who kept a detailed journal during the early years of settlement.

National Library of Australia

Bricks

Sydney is unusual in the extent to which the urban landscape has been profoundly influenced by the basic, yet ancient, building material of bricks. Bricks made by the first convict brickmaker were used in the public buildings of the new colony, and the presence of brickyards influenced a succession of localities, from the inner city to the outer suburbs.

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.

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.

Colonial architecture

Public building

Residential building

Gardening

First Government House

full record »

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.