Garden Palace, Sydney c1879-1882 by JT Richardson Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a128953 / XV1/ Pub/ Gar P/2)

On 17 September 1879 the Sydney International Exhibition opened in the newly built Garden Palace in the Botanic Gardens, along with a number of other pavilions in the gardens and Domain. The Sydney International Exhibition was Sydney's coming out to the world as a wanna-be global city. As Shirley Fitzgerald notes in her Dictionary of Sydney entry on the Garden Palace: "The fashion for holding exhibitions, where countries could show off their industrial and manufacturing might as well as their agricultural riches and artistic skills, began in 1851 with the London Exhibition. It was housed in the purpose-built Crystal Palace." The Garden Palace was Sydney's answer to the Crystal Palace. It was a marvellous extravagant exhibition hall with domes and a tower that dominated the Macquarie Street skyline. The exhibition ran until April 1880. There were 724 classes of goods and produce on exhibition, from huge pieces of machinery to fine porcelain and Aboriginal artefacts.

View looking across the pond to the exhibition buiding, French flag flying on left, and the flag of the United States of America flying on the right c1880 by Charles Bayliss Credit: State Library of Victoria (Acc No: H26426)

While the exhibition made an impact upon Sydneysiders and our city landscape, it all went up in smoke just a few years later. At dawn on 22 September 1882, the Garden Palace spectacularly burnt down, with reports of blackened iron pieces landing as far away as Rushcutters Bay. By this time the building was being used for occasional events and as office space for various government departments. Records, including those of land occupations, the 1881 Census details, and railway surveys, all went up in flames. So too did 300 uninsured canvasses from the Art Society's annual exhibition, the grand organ and the foundation collection of the Technological and Mining Museum (now the Powerhouse Museum). All of the Aboriginal artefacts compiled by the Australian Museum for the exhibition also went up in flames. "Thousands of bleached white shields will echo the masses of rubble - the only remnants of the building after the fire - raising the layered history and bones of the Garden Palace across the site. A native kangaroo grassland will form the heart of the installation which will be activated and enlivened by presentations of Indigenous language, performances, talks, special events and workshops each day." Separate exhibitions within the Royal Botanic Garden and at the State Library of NSW and Art Gallery of NSW tell the different stories of the Garden Palace and the international exhibition. There were a range of symposiums that led up to the final installation of the work, which are also accessible through the project website.

'Some ruins of Exhibition Palace of 1878 [sic] c1882 Credit: Australian National Maritime Museum (Gift from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron 00013762)

Don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to explore the Garden Palace, and its enduring legacies of loss. This is a landmark public art project and a major engagement with Sydney's Aboriginal and European history. The installation opens on 17 September in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney and will be on display daily from 10am until sunset until 3 October 2016. For more details, and to see the installation in progress, go to the Kaldor Public Art Project here. Listen to the Lisa & Nic's chat here and tune in to 2SER Breakfast with Nic Healey on 107.3 every Wednesday morning at 8:15-8:20 am to hear more from the Dictionary of Sydney.  Listen now   

Birds eye view of Project 32: Jonathan Jones' barrangal dyara (skin and bones), September 13 2015 Photo by Peter Greig, courtesy: Kaldor Public Art Projects