Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Government lumber yard

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.

-33.863856421061, 151.20764878901

Milestone
Opened
1789
Closed
1832
Name
Commemorated by
Position
1805 - Dec 1814
Type