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Outlines of the Orphan School & Lumber Yard 1824

Outlines of the Orphan School & Lumber Yard 1824

By

Standish Lawrence Harris

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Mitchell Library)

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Public building

Buildings

Female Orphan School, George Street

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Government lumber yard

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Harris, Standish Lawrence

State Library of New South Wales

Public building

Female Orphan School, George Street

Two storey Georgian building on the corner of George and Bridge Streets that housed destitute girls. It was purchased by the government in 1801 from its former owner Lieutenant Kent and closed in 1829 when the purpose built orphanage at Parramatta was completed.

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Government lumber yard

full record »

Official government lumber yard and workshop on the southern corner of Bridge and George Streets that employed convict labour. Established about 1789 after an earlier yard on Bennelong Point was destroyed by fire, the yard was enlarged and improved by successive governments. In 1832 when the yard closed and the works moved to a smaller site next to Hyde Park Barracks it was providing employment for about 183 convicts. The lumber yard was an important early centre of manufacturing - well as blacksmiths, sawyers and carpenters it employed wheelwrights, tin smiths, tool makers, brass and iron founders, coopers, gunsmiths and wheelwrights. Clothes and shoes were also produced there.