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Bent St showing old Government Printing Office [Emigrant Barracks] and the Library 1842

By
John Rae
From the collections of the
State Library of New South Wales
[DG SV* / Sp Coll / Rae / 10]
(Dixson Galleries)

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Colonial architecture Horses as transport Roads
Buildings
Australian Subscription Library and Reading Room Emigrants Barracks
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Macquarie Street
Organisation
Female Immigrants' Home

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Rae, John

Scottish-born public servant, writer and painter who was the first full-time town clerk of the City of Sydney, and later a railway commissioner.

State Library of New South Wales

Roads

Horses as transport

Colonial architecture

Emigrants Barracks

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Timber huts on Bent Street opposite Phillip Street that housed government sponsored migrants on their arrival in Sydney between 1837 and the mid 1840s. Tents were also pitched to accommodate when large numbers of people arrived in ships. The Government Printing Office was also located in the same complex from January 1841. 

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.

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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Female Immigrants' Home

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Organisation founded by Caroline Chisholm in 1841 to provide accommodation and support for the large numbers of single women migrating to New South Wales. The Home occupied a portion in the south west of the Immigrants Barracks on Bent Street opposite the corner of Phillip Street. It opened in November 1841 and closed on 5 May 1842 after providing for thousands of women.