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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Sydney, Government House 1802

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Sydney, Government House 1802

By

William Westall

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[PIC Solander Box B19 #R4288]

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Appears in

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

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Aboriginal Boats Colonial architecture

Buildings

First Government House

Natural features

Sydney Cove

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Westall, William

National Library of Australia

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

Aboriginal

Boats

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.

Sydney Cove

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Small bay on the southern shore of Port Jackson, which became the site for the European settlement in Sydney.