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The Dictionary of Sydney
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Detail of Plan of streets intersecting at Old G...

Detail of Plan of streets intersecting at Old Government House 1845

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[Ca 84/30 (detail)]

(Dixson Map Collection)

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

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First Government House

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State Library of New South Wales

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.

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Public building

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.