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The Dictionary of Sydney
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Macquarie Street 1845

Macquarie Street 1845

By

Frances Webb Sheilds

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[City of Sydney (Sheilds), 1845: Single sheet CRS1155/1 (detail) ]

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Macquarie Street The Domain

Organisation

Australian Subscription Library Sydney Female School of Industry Sydney Hospital

Buildings

Australian Subscription Library and Reading Room Hyde Park Barracks Parliament House

Artefacts

Sir Richard Bourke statue

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Sheilds, Frances Webb

Railway engineer and surveyor who completed a survey of the City of Sydney in February 1845.

City of Sydney Archives

The City of Sydney Archives holds items from as early as 1842 when the Municipal Council of Sydney was established, and manage, preserve and provide access to more than 1 million items, including documents, photographs, maps, plans and data. The collection consists of City of Sydney corporate archives, items collected from the community relating to the City of Sydney local area and published reference material. Use the links to go directly to the City of Sydney's website.

Maps

Macquarie Street

Street at the eastern edge of Sydney's central business district, designed as a ceremonial thoroughfare by Lachlan Macquarie and containing many of Sydney's public buildings. It was later the best address in the colony, and became a prestigious medical precinct in the twentieth century.

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Sydney Hospital

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Hospital founded by Lachlan Macquarie and housed in a number of buildings in Macquarie Street.

Hyde Park Barracks

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Georgian brick building at the southern end of Macquarie Street. Designed by colonial architect Francis Greenway to house male convicts, it subsequently became an immigration depot, government asylum, law courts and museum.

Parliament House

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Building housing the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, built as the northern wing of Sydney Hospital, and much added to over nearly 200 years.

Sir Richard Bourke statue

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Statue of Governor Sir Richard Bourke that was unveiled in 1842 'on the rising ground at the entrance of the Government Domain from Bent Street', five years after he had departed the colony. Australia's first monument, and the only statue of a British colonial governor built with money raised by public subscription. In 1838, Bourke's son in London commissioned the English sculptor Edward Hodges Baily was commissioned to create the work on behalf of the committee in Sydney. The statue was moved in 1925 and now stands in front of the Mitchell Library, at the interesection of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place.

Australian Subscription Library

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Sydney's first major public library. The organisation formed in 1826 and the Library opened in rented rooms in Pitt Street, 1 December 1827, with 1,000 volumes. In 1845 the Library moved into a purpose built building on the corner of Bent and Macquarie Streets. The organisation was renamed the Australian Library and Literary Institution in 1853. After financial difficulties, in 1869 the collection and building was bought by the colonial government and became the first Free Public Library of Sydney and has since evolved into the State Library of New South Wales.

The Domain

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Park in central Sydney which dates from the colony's earliest days.

Sydney Female School of Industry

School established in 1826 to train girls as domestic workers. The school also provided instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, spinning, knitting and housework.

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Australian Subscription Library and Reading Room

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Building on the corner of Bent and Macquarie Streets constructed in 1845 to house the Australian Subscription Library. The subscription library ran into financial difficulties and was taken over by the state government to became the Sydney Free Public Library in 1869. An addition to the building was made in the 1880s as the collection and number of readers grew. In 1895 the name changed again to the Public Library of New South Wales. The Public Library collection and staff moved to the new extension of the Mitchell Library building in June 1942. The building on Bent Street was demolished in 1969.