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Detail of 'Sydney Cove, Port Jackson 1788' showing the first Government House under construction on the extreme left

By
William Bradley
From the collections of the
State Library of New South Wales
[a3461012 / Safe 1/14 opp p 84 (detail)]
(Mitchell Library)

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

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

State Library of 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.

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.

First Fleet

Fleet of eleven ships which left England in 1787 to found a penal colony in Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy Vessels, three store ships and six convict transports which carried over 1000 convicts, marines and seamen to the colony.

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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.