Government House, Sydney – The Domain and Royal Botanic Garden – Blore's Gothic Castle, Its Thirteen Bedrooms, the Governors Who Lived There and Governor Margaret Beazley – 1845 to Today

Drive in past the Conservatorium, through the gates off Macquarie Street, and there it is: a sandstone castle with turrets, battlements and Gothic windows, on a lawn above Farm Cove with the Opera House just beyond the trees. This is Government House, home of the Governors of New South Wales since 1845. Here's its story: how it came to be built, how it's laid out inside, how many bedrooms it has, who has lived there, and who lives there now.

Government House, Sydney, from the drive, 2015. Image: Maksym Kozlenko, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Before the Castle: Phillip's House on Bridge Street

NSW Parliament's history page says the first governor's residence was a canvas and timber structure that Arthur Phillip brought out on the First Fleet in 1788. A more permanent house followed that same year on what is now the corner of Bridge and Phillip Streets, where the Museum of Sydney stands. It was "extended and patched up over the years by successive governors but was always in poor condition", and governors much preferred their country house at Parramatta. The Governor's own website says that after nearly fifty years the Bridge Street house "had become worn and dilapidated".

The first Government House on Bridge Street, about 1809, by John William Lewin. Image: John William Lewin (1770-1819), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The old Government House and its grounds in 1819, by Joseph Lycett. Image: Joseph Lycett, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

First Government House in 1833, near the end of its life. Image: unknown artist, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Macquarie's Castle That Never Was

Governor Macquarie wanted a grand new residence and had his convict architect Francis Greenway design one, a Gothic castle. London refused to pay. Parliament's history says that "only the stables, designed by convict architect Francis Greenway, were erected". That "castle-like structure" is now the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The Governor's site says the stables, finished in 1821, influenced both where the new house went and what style it was built in. I've written about the stables in Sydney Conservatorium of Music – The Old Government House Horse Stables.

Greenway's castellated Government House stables, painted by Conrad Martens in 1842. Image: Conrad Martens, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Edward Blore's Design

In 1835 the British government finally agreed that a new Government House was essential (NSW Parliament). The commission went to Edward Blore, "at the time Special Architect to William IV, and responsible for completing parts of John Nash's design of Buckingham Palace", in the Governor's own words. Blore never came to Australia. He drew the plans in London, and the colony built them.

Edward Blore (1787–1879), the London architect who designed Government House, Sydney, without ever setting foot in the colony. Image: Georg Koberwein (1820–1876), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The Australian Heritage Database explains that the local architect "had the responsibility of altering the plans to suit local conditions". By the time Governor Bourke left in December 1837 the design had been modified, tenders let and some foundations laid. Official approval from London arrived 15 to 18 months after work had started. The man in charge was the Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, with William Moir as Clerk of Works. Colonel George Barney of the Royal Engineers also helped, according to Parliament and the Dictionary of Sydney.

Building It, 1837–1845 (or 1847)

Sources disagree slightly on the dates. The Governor's website says construction "finally began" in 1836. NSW Parliament and the Dictionary of Sydney say 1837. The Heritage Register gives construction years of 1837–1847. Parliament says the materials were local: sandstone from Sydney quarries, cedar from the Shoalhaven and Hunter districts, and marble from inland NSW. A Queen's Birthday Ball was held in the unfinished house in 1843. Governor Sir George Gipps and his wife moved in in June 1845. The Dictionary of Sydney adds that the house "was ready for occupation in 1845 but was not completed until two years later". Old Government House on Bridge Street was demolished.

The new Government House rising behind the stables tower in 1841, painted by Conrad Martens. Image: Conrad Martens, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Government House in 1857–58, photographed by Matthew Fortescue Moresby (Royal Australian Historical Society). Image: Royal Australian Historical Society, via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions).

The Architecture: A Romantic Gothic Castle

NSW Parliament describes the style as "a romantic Gothic revival style – castellated, crenellated, turreted and bedecked with the coats of arms of its occupants over time". The Governor's site calls it "Tudor-Gothic … an imposing box-like form with castellated walls and towers". An older version of the same site, archived in 2013, calls it "the most sophisticated example of Gothic Revival architecture in the colony". The Heritage Register describes "a Gothic Revival two storey building with crenellated battlements, turrets, detailed interiors, extensive cellars and a porte cochere at the entrance". It's built of stone, with a slate roof, timber floors, unpainted cedar joinery and a stone-flagged verandah.

Government House from the north-east, 1872, photographed by Charles Percy Pickering. Image: Charles Percy Pickering, NSW Government Printer, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The entrance porch, photographed by Pickering in 1872, a year before the new portico was added. Image: Charles Percy Pickering, NSW Government Printer, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

A stereograph of Government House from the early 1860s (Powerhouse Museum). Image: Powerhouse Museum from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Additions

Parliament lists the main additions: "a front portico in 1873, an eastern verandah in 1879 and extensions to the ballroom and Governor's study in 1900–01". The Heritage Register credits the portico and the arcade, the open cloister on the east side, to Colonial Architect James Barnet. It says this cloister "forms a verandah room which is supported by Gothic arches and forms an open balcony above". Other buildings in the grounds include the Lodge of about 1846, "a copy of a guard house at Windsor Castle", the Chalet of about 1890 by W. L. Vernon, and a 1937 brick gatehouse.

Government House across Farm Cove from Fort Macquarie, about 1880 (Australian National Maritime Museum). Image: Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions).

The house and its terrace about 1900 (Powerhouse Museum). Image: Powerhouse Museum, Tyrrell Collection, via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions).

The Lyon, Cottier Interiors

The house's great treasure is inside. Museums of History NSW says that in 1879 Barnet "commissioned the firm Lyon, Cottier & Co to decorate the state room interiors of Government House", partly to welcome the incoming governor Lord Augustus Loftus. The work shows the influence of the Aesthetic Movement. The drawing-room ceiling has "hand-painted medallions of pre-Raphaelite style allegorical portraits of the four seasons and night and day", set among stencilled flowers and vases. The friezes and dados borrow from "neo-Egyptian, neo-Grecian and Anglo-Japanese" ornament. The Australian Heritage Database says the Lyon and Cottier state rooms are "one of the finest examples of high art, interior design in Australia", and that the house's colonial furniture and portrait collections are "of national importance".

Lady Honor and Lady Morvyth Ward, daughters of Governor-General Lord Dudley, reading in a room at Government House, about 1908–11. Photograph by A. J. Perier. Image: Perier, A. J. (Albert James), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

How Many Bedrooms?

Two official sources give the same figure: thirteen bedrooms. The Heritage Register says "the ground floor contains twelve rooms and the first floor contains thirteen bedrooms", with "extensive staff offices and quarters" as well. NSW Parliament's page also says 12 rooms, "mostly for official purposes", on the ground floor and 13 bedrooms, but it puts them "on the second floor". The building is two storeys, so the Heritage Register's "first floor" is the better description. The Australian Heritage Database lists the twelve ground-floor rooms, including "an inner, outer and main hall, study, dining room, ante room, drawing room and ballroom". The count has changed over time. The Heritage Register says that for Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Bicentenary visit in 1988, "Bedrooms 4 and 5 were linked with a new door way", making the three-room Windsor Suite. I couldn't find a published count for the staff bedrooms in the service wings, or for the Chalet and the cottages in the grounds. In 1989 the potting shed was turned into a two-bedroom staff cottage.

Who Lived There

From Gipps in 1845 the house was home to the governors of New South Wales. At Federation it also became home to the Governor-General. The Australian Heritage Database explains that rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne meant both Government Houses were made official residences "of equal status". The first five Governors-General used the Sydney house until 1912, when the NSW Government "sparked a major controversy by effectively evicting the Governor-General". The same source lists the house's place in big events, including "the formation of the first Federal ministry; the first Federal Executive Council meeting … the sacking of Premier Lang". That was Governor Sir Philip Game's dismissal of Jack Lang in May 1932.

A garden party at Government House on 9 May 1935, photographed by Sam Hood. Image: Sam Hood, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Government House in 1938 (Royal Australian Historical Society). Image: Royal Australian Historical Society, via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions).

The royal garden party at Government House during the Queen's 1963 visit. Image: State Archives and Records NSW, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The gardens grew with the governors and their wives. The Heritage Register mentions Governor Denison's five-acre vegetable garden, the 1869 Eastern Terrace with its fountain, the Countess of Belmore's palm grove of the 1870s, and Lady Game's "Spring Walk" of the 1930s. The Western Terrace, from 1836–45, is the oldest part of the garden.

The Eastern Terrace, laid out in 1869, looking towards the harbour. Image: Wpcpey, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The garden front and terrace, 2024. Image: Paora, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

1996: The Governor Moves Out

In 1996 Premier Bob Carr decided the new governor, Gordon Samuels, would not live at Government House. The Heritage Register says Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair "was the last NSW Governor to reside at Government House" before the change. In March 1996 the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, now Sydney Living Museums, took over staffing and management, and the house and grounds were opened to the public. The Governor's office moved to the Chief Secretary's Building in Macquarie Street. The Daily Telegraph later called Carr "an ardent republican" and said the move was "criticised at the time as an attempt to downgrade the governor's role". Under the Trust, the Heritage Register says, "almost 2 million people" visited by 2011.

Government House with the city skyline behind, 2017. Image: Sardaka, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

2011–2014: The Governors Come Home

On 7 October 2011, ABC News reported that Premier Barry O'Farrell would reverse Carr's decision and that Governor Marie Bashir and her husband, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, would move back. They were to live first in "the chalet, which adjoins the main Government House structure" while the main house was refurbished. The public would keep its access. Sources give different years for when the governor was fully back. The Heritage Register says that in December 2013 the house "resumed its role as the official Residence". NSW Parliament says "in 2013 the Governor resumed occupancy". Management passed from Sydney Living Museums back to the Office of the Governor at that time. General David Hurley, who took over in October 2014, told the Guardian he would live at Government House. Each governor since has lived there.

Government House seen from above, between the city and the harbour, 2024. Image: Paora, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

The Governor Today

I checked the Governor's official website on 1 November 2026. It describes Government House as "the Official Residence and Office of Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley 39th Governor of New South Wales and Mr Dennis Wilson". She is "the 28th Governor to occupy this Government House and has held the position since 2 May 2019". Her vice-regal program shows her receiving visitors and presiding at the Executive Council at Government House in the last week of October 2026. Thousands of people still come every year for open days, investitures, receptions and charity events.

The western side of the house, 2024. Image: Paora, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

The forecourt and flagpoles at the entrance, 2024. Image: Paora, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

Government House on an open day in January 2024. Image: Paora, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

The gates of Government House, 2023. Image: Lachlan Andrews, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

More on My Blogs

• Government House – Macquarie Street / Conservatorium Road – Domain / Bennelong Point (Historic Sydney Mansions)
• Government House – Royal Botanic Gardens – Macquarie Street
• Sydney Conservatorium of Music – The Old Government House Horse Stables
• Governor Arthur Phillip's Garden – Macquarie Place
• Fort Macquarie – Bennelong Point
• The Man O'War Steps – Farm Cove

References

• Governor of New South Wales, "History" (governor.nsw.gov.au/government-house/history), and the Vice-Regal Program, fetched 1 November 2026.
• Parliament of NSW, "Government House".
• Heritage NSW, State Heritage Register, "Government House, Movable Heritage Collection and Gardens".
• Australian Heritage Database, "Government House, Sydney" (Place ID 102246) and Register of the National Estate entry (Place ID 1866).
• Dictionary of Sydney, "Government House".
• Museums of History NSW, "The red drawing room at Government House".
• ABC News, "NSW Governor returns to harbour-side house", 7 October 2011; Daily Telegraph, 7 October 2011; The Guardian, 5 June 2014.

Francis Greenway – Convict Architect – From a Bristol Death Sentence to Macquarie's Civil Architect, Every Building He Designed, and an Unmarked Grave at East Maitland – 1777 to 1837

For twenty-seven years Australians carried Francis Greenway around in their wallets. His face was on the first decimal ten-dollar note, issued in 1966 and in use until 1993, and his buildings were printed behind him. Many people at the time didn't know that the man on the tenner had been sentenced to hang for forgery. He came to Sydney in chains, became the colony's first government architect, gave Governor Macquarie the buildings he wanted for his town, fell out with nearly everyone, and died broke on a swampy farm in the Hunter. Nobody knows exactly where he's buried. Here's his story, and the story of every building I could trace to him.

Francis Howard Greenway, pencil portrait by an unknown artist, drawn sometime between 1814 and 1837. Image: unknown artist, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

A Family of Builders in the West Country

The Australian Dictionary of Biography says Francis Greenway was born at Mangotsfield, near Bristol, in 1777, son of Francis Greenway and Ann, née Webb. "The Greenways had been stonemasons, builders and architects in the west country for generations." Wikipedia gives his birthday as 20 November 1777. Museums of History NSW, drawing on James Broadbent and Joy Hughes' 1997 book Francis Greenway Architect, says he went into business with his brothers in Bristol in 1805. Their best-known job, and the only Greenway work still standing in England, was the Clifton Hotel and Assembly Rooms, now the Clifton Club. Only the front is his, because the family firm went bankrupt in April 1809, part-way through building it.

The Clifton Club in Bristol, built as the Clifton Hotel and Assembly Rooms. The facade is Greenway's only surviving work in England. Image: Whitewig24, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Forgery, a Death Sentence and Newgate

With the business gone, Greenway did something desperate. Museums of History NSW suggests he did it "perhaps in an attempt to restore the family business". He was tried at the Bristol Sessions on 23 March 1812 and found guilty of forging a document, which the same source says was a contract. Forgery was a hanging offence. The sentence was commuted to fourteen years' transportation to New South Wales. The ADB says he "was found guilty"; Wikipedia says he "pleaded guilty". I couldn't settle which is right from the sources I could open.

While he waited in Bristol's Newgate prison, he painted the life around him. One of those pictures, The Mock Trial, showing prisoners staging a pretend court, is now in the State Library of NSW.

"The Mock Trial", painted by Greenway himself inside Newgate Prison, Bristol, in 1812 while he waited to be transported. Image: Francis Greenway, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The General Hewitt, 1814

He arrived in Sydney on the convict transport General Hewitt on 7 February 1814. Museums of History NSW has read his convict indent, which records him as 34, with hazel eyes and light brown hair, 5 feet 6¾ inches tall. A month later, on 7 March 1814, he had a ticket of leave, and the clerk wrote that he was "good looking". His wife Mary and their three children followed him out in July on the Broxbornebury, the ADB says. The ADB gives two different dates for the marriage: one version says 27 April 1809 at St Michael's, Bristol, the other "about 1804".

His first private client was Dr John Harris, the surgeon on the General Hewitt, who had him enlarge his house on the Ultimo estate (Wikipedia, citing Broadbent and Hughes).

Lecturing the Governor

Then came the famous meeting with Lachlan Macquarie. The State Library tells it this way. Macquarie asked the new convict to copy a courthouse design out of a pattern book. Greenway answered by lecturing the governor on his taste. Museums of History NSW quotes his letter of 27 July 1814: it was "rather painful to my mind as a professional man to copy a Building that has no claim to classical proportions or character". He copied it anyway, but Macquarie had noticed him. In 1815 Greenway was advising on public works now and then. On 30 March 1816 he was appointed Civil Architect and Assistant Engineer, on 3 shillings a day, with quarters for his family and a horse and forage, according to the ADB. It was the beginning of the office of NSW Government Architect, which still exists.

Greenway lived in a house the government gave him with the job. I've written about the site in Francis Greenway's Residence – George Street, cnr Argyle Street.

Macquarie's Architect, 1816–1822

Over six years Greenway designed, altered or oversaw a remarkable run of buildings. The State Library sums up the range: "from lighthouses to obelisks; churches to stables; barracks and prisons to private dwellings". Macquarie told London in 1819 that Greenway's buildings were "not only Strong, durable and substantial, but also Elegant and good models of Architecture". The lighthouse earned him a conditional pardon on 16 December 1817, and the Barracks an absolute pardon in 1819. Museums of History NSW dates that pardon to 4 June 1819 and says Macquarie handed it over himself. The ADB connects it with the Barracks opening on 20 May.

Here's the list, building by building. I've marked where the credit is shared, disputed or only "attributed".

1. Macquarie Lighthouse, South Head (1816–18) – demolished, replaced by a replica

This was his first government job, according to the ADB. The stonework was finished in December 1817 and Macquarie was so pleased he gave Greenway his conditional emancipation on the spot. The light was lit in November 1818. The soft sandstone weathered badly, and James Barnet built a near-copy beside it. The ADB says the replica was built in 1880; Wikipedia and the Heritage Register put Barnet's tower at 1878–83. Greenway's tower was then pulled down. What stands at Vaucluse today is Barnet's, modelled on Greenway's.

The two Macquarie Lighthouses side by side, about 1883: Greenway's original on the left and James Barnet's replacement on the right. Photograph by Charles Bayliss. Image: Charles Bayliss, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The Macquarie Lighthouse today, Barnet's 1880s copy of Greenway's design. Image: Dietmar Rabich, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

2. Government House Stables (1817–21) – now the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Macquarie wanted a grand new Government House and left the design to Greenway. The ADB says he "promptly designed a castle and began a stable block so grand that it was often mistaken for Government House itself". London refused to pay for the castle, and Commissioner Bigge called the stables a piece of "useless magnificence", as quoted on Wikipedia. The Heritage Register says they were built 1817–1820 as a "castellated fort" in Gothick style. The courtyard was roofed over in 1913–15 to make the hall for the Conservatorium, and it's still there.

See my posts Sydney Conservatorium of Music – The Old Government House Horse Stables, Government House – Royal Botanic Gardens and Government House – Macquarie Street / Conservatorium Road.

Greenway's castellated Government House stables in 1872, photographed by Charles Percy Pickering. Image: Charles Percy Pickering, NSW Government Printer, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The old stables today as the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Image: sv1ambo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

3. The Obelisk, Macquarie Place (1818) – still standing

This is the sandstone obelisk from which all road distances in the colony were measured. Wikipedia lists Greenway as architect, citing the Heritage Register. It's still in Macquarie Place. I covered it in The Roads Obelisk – Macquarie Place and Macquarie Place.

Greenway's 1818 obelisk in Macquarie Place, the starting point for the colony's road distances. Image: Sardaka at en.wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

4. Fort Macquarie, Bennelong Point (1817–21) – demolished 1901 (credit disputed)

This was a castellated fort on the tip of Bennelong Point. Its foundation stone was laid on 17 December 1817 and it fired its first salute in February 1821. The Dictionary of Sydney names Greenway as architect. Macquarie University's Journeys in Time project isn't so sure. It says Greenway promised completion in November 1820, but that "the engineer and draftsman responsible for the design is unknown", and that Lieutenant John Cliffe Watts was "quite likely" the main designer. It was demolished in 1901 for the Fort Macquarie tram depot, which was itself cleared in 1958–59 for the Opera House. See Fort Macquarie – Bennelong Point and The Sydney Opera House – From Cattle Point and Bennelong Point to Fort Macquarie.

Fort Macquarie on Bennelong Point, painted by Conrad Martens, 1836. Image: Conrad Martens, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Fort Macquarie's tower and guns, photographed by William Hetzer about 1858–59. Image: William Hetzer, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

5. Dawes Point Battery improvements (1819) – mostly demolished for the Harbour Bridge

Engineers Australia's heritage record says that in 1819 Macquarie ordered Greenway to improve the old Dawes Point fort, adding "a semicircular battery supported by a new decorative castellated guardhouse". The battery was strengthened again in the 1850s, and most of it was demolished in 1925 for the Harbour Bridge. Remnants survive under the southern approaches.

Dawes Point Battery as it looked in 1821, after Greenway's improvements, engraved after James Wallis. Image: Wallis, James, 1785?-1858, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

6. Hyde Park Barracks (1817–19) – a World Heritage-listed museum

This was built for convict men on Macquarie Street. The ADB says Macquarie opened it on 20 May 1819 "with great ceremony and a special feast for the prisoners". It was later used for immigrant women, courts and offices, was restored in the 1990s as a museum, and is now part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage listing. The ADB regrets "the wanton ruin" of the great compound, his "one example of planning in the grand manner". See Hyde Park Barracks and Queens Square.

Hyde Park Barracks, Greenway's convict barracks of 1817–19, on Macquarie Street. Image: Kgbo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Convict hammocks rehung inside Hyde Park Barracks, now a museum. Image: Sputniktilt, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

7. Female Factory, Parramatta (designed by 1818–19) – part survives

The ADB says that "by 1819 he had designed a large female factory at Parramatta", a combined prison, workhouse and barracks for convict women. It later became part of a mental asylum, and parts of it survive in the North Parramatta heritage precinct. Museums of History NSW also lists it among his works. I wrote about it in Parramatta Female Factory – Fleet Street, North Parramatta.

The Female Factory at Parramatta, about 1826, by Augustus Earle. Image: Augustus Earle (1793-1838), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

8. St Matthew's Church, Windsor (from 1817) – still in use

The ADB calls it "probably his masterpiece". The Heritage Register explains that a first church by builder Henry Kitchen was so badly built that Greenway condemned it and started again. It was consecrated by Samuel Marsden on 8 December 1822 and is still a working Anglican church above the Hawkesbury. The ADB says it later suffered "depressing alterations".

St Matthew's Church, Windsor, in 1906 (Royal Australian Historical Society). Image: Royal Australian Historical Society, via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions).

St Matthew's, Windsor, in 2021. Image: Collywolly, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Inside St Matthew's, Windsor. Image: Neil Paton aka Sardaka at en.wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

9. St Luke's Church, Liverpool (from 1818) – still in use

The ADB says St Luke's was begun in 1818. The first builder, Nathaniel Lucas, died after the foundations went in and James Smith finished it. Greenway "tactlessly quarrelled with each builder". The church was later "grossly mutilated", but it's still the Anglican parish church of Liverpool.

St Luke's Church, Liverpool, 2023. Image: Chris.sherlock2, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The entrance to St Luke's, Liverpool. Image: Sardaka, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).

10. St James' Church, King Street (1819–24) – still in use

This was begun as a courthouse and turned into a church when Bigge objected. The ADB calls it "his most classical design", ranking "among the finer Georgian buildings of its date". It was altered a good deal later, but it's still the city's oldest church in use. My full post is St James' Church, King Street – Greenway's Courthouse That Became a Church (older version: St James Church – 173 King Street).

St James' Church in 1836, drawn by John Gardner Austin. Image: John Gardner Austin, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

St James' Church today, under the towers of the modern city. Image: Kgbo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

11. The Rum Hospital – repairs and alterations, not the design

The General Hospital on Macquarie Street was finished in 1816 and wasn't his design. Museums of History NSW says that in 1816 Greenway sat on a committee that found it riddled with faults, writing that "the Cap is set wrong upon the Column" and that "the future safety of the building requires an early attention". In September 1820 he drew up a scheme to strengthen the roofs. The two surviving wings are Parliament House and the Mint. Wikipedia's opening paragraph credits him with designing it; that's wrong, and his part was the repairs. See Sydney Hospital – The Rum Hospital.

12. The Supreme Court, King Street (from 1820) – much altered, still a court

The ADB lists it among his designs under Governor Brisbane. Wikipedia says he was dismissed before it was finished in 1828, and that James Barnet added to it later. It stands on the corner of King and Elizabeth Streets.

King Street in 1843 by Frederick Garling, looking up towards St James' Church and the courthouse area. Image: Frederick Garling (1806-1873), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

13. Windsor Court House (1821–22) – still standing

Museums of History NSW lists "the Courthouse at Windsor" among his works. Heritage NSW search extracts give the design as 1821 and the building as 1821–22, and say it was restored in 1961. It's one of the best-preserved colonial courthouses in the state.

14. Liverpool Hospital (designed c.1820–22, built c.1825–30) – now TAFE (attributed)

The ADB names "a version of Liverpool Hospital (now the Technical College)" among his last designs. Museums of History NSW says building wasn't finished until 1830. The Heritage Register is more careful: the design was "initiated by Governor Macquarie and attributed to Francis Greenway". It's now TAFE NSW's Liverpool campus.

The former Liverpool Hospital, attributed to Greenway, now part of TAFE NSW Liverpool. Image: Sardaka, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).

15. Smaller works and lost buildings

• Extensions to First Government House, Bridge Street. Listed by Wikipedia from the Heritage Register; demolished in 1846. See Governor Phillip's Garden.
• Stores at Parramatta and a police office in York Street, both demolished (ADB).
• The timber portico at Old Government House, Parramatta (Wikipedia).
• Cadmans Cottage, The Rocks. Wikipedia, quoting Haskell, says he supervised its construction in 1815–16.
• A design for St Mary's Catholic chapel, rejected as not grand enough (Wikipedia, citing Sternbeck, 2022).
• Clyde Bank, a private house of 1823, listed by the ADB.

16. Attributed, but not proven

• Cleveland House, Surry Hills (c.1823–24, built for Daniel Cooper). Heritage NSW says it "is believed to be the work of Francis Greenway"; the National Trust says "attributed". See my post Cleveland House – 146–164 Chalmers Street.
• Burdekin House, Macquarie Street. This one was built in 1842 (Dictionary of Sydney), five years after Greenway died, so he can't have designed it. An ANU thesis notes it "was attributed to Greenway" by 1920s enthusiasts for colonial architecture. It was demolished in 1933. See Burdekin House – 197 Macquarie Street.
• Hobartville, Richmond, and the Judge's House, Kent Street. Wikipedia lists both as uncertain; the Judge's House is also attributed to W. Harper.

Cleveland House, Surry Hills, which Heritage NSW believes to be Greenway's work. Image: Sardaka, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).

Bigge, Brisbane and the Sack

Commissioner John Thomas Bigge arrived in 1819 to look into Macquarie's spending. The State Library says he "interfered in many of Greenway's architectural projects" and went around Macquarie to deal with him directly, which spoiled the old friendship between architect and governor. Macquarie left in 1821. The ADB says Governor Brisbane kept Greenway on but restricted him. Greenway kept pressing "his curious claim for fees", and Museums of History NSW calls one bill "ridiculously large". Builders began changing his designs without telling him, "the ultimate insult to any architect". He was dismissed on 15 November 1822.

Even then he wouldn't leave his government house. The ADB says he produced a document "since thought to be a forgery" claiming title to it, and the government only got the property back after his death, by going to court in London.

Poverty and a Grave Nobody Can Find

The last fifteen years were hard. In January 1835 he advertised in the Sydney Gazette that "arising from circumstances of a singular nature" he was "induced again to solicit the patronage of his friends and the public". He wrote reminiscences for the Australian Almanac of 1835, and in 1836 tried to float a company to build quays at Sydney Cove, which went nowhere. He farmed a grant on the Hunter River, land the ADB calls "marshy and poor".

He died there in 1837. The ADB says he "was buried in a small cemetery in a lonely paddock outside East Maitland. There is no tombstone or marker over his grave." The State Library agrees he lies in an unmarked grave near East Maitland. Wikipedia adds, citing Maitland City Council, that he probably died of typhoid, and that he is "believed to have been buried in the Glebe burial ground at East Maitland on 25 September 1837". The exact date of his death isn't known. He was about 59.

The Man on the Tenner

A hundred and thirty years later he was on the money. The first decimal $10 note of 1966 carried his portrait, with his buildings behind him. It's said to be the only banknote in the world to honour a convicted forger. His name is also on a federal electorate, a Canberra suburb, a Hunter high school, and, with what I like to think is a bit of a joke, a correctional complex near Windsor.

He was arrogant, quarrelsome and probably a forger twice over. He was also the man who gave Macquarie's Sydney its finest buildings. Next time you walk up Macquarie Street past the Barracks and St James', or stand under the Con's battlements, you're looking at his work.

References

• Morton Herman, "Greenway, Francis (1777–1837)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1, 1966.
• Museums of History NSW, "Francis Greenway, Architect & Engineer" (2021), and "Francis Greenway: the 'future safety' of the Rum Hospital buildings"; "Visions on the future".
• State Library of NSW, "Francis Greenway: convict architect".
• Heritage NSW, State Heritage Inventory: Conservatorium of Music; St Matthew's Anglican Church, Windsor; Liverpool TAFE College (former Liverpool Hospital); Windsor Court House; Cleveland House.
• Dictionary of Sydney, "Fort Macquarie" and "Burdekin House".
• Macquarie University, Journeys in Time, "Fort Macquarie".
• Engineers Australia, Engineering Heritage, "Dawes Battery Remains".
• National Trust (NSW), "The history and heritage of Cleveland House".
• Wikipedia, "Francis Greenway" (for the birth date, typhoid, burial date, the tenner and the minor-works list).

St James Station – Hyde Park, Sydney – Bradfield's First Underground, the Ghost Platforms, the Wartime Tunnels and the Château Tanunda "Brandy of Distinction" Sign – 1926 to Today

Come up out of Hyde Park on Elizabeth Street, opposite David Jones, and look into the mouth of St James station. Glowing over the stairs, in pale blue and orange neon, are the words Château Tanunda – The Brandy of Distinction. Generations of Sydneysiders have caught the train under that sign without giving it a second look. It has been there since the late 1930s, and it advertises a South Australian brandy. Below it is a station that opened in 1926 as one of the first two underground stations in Australia, with platforms that never saw a train, tunnels that sheltered Sydney during the war, and a lake nobody's allowed to visit. Here's the story.

The Elizabeth Street entrance to St James station, with the Château Tanunda neon sign glowing inside, 2011. Image: Sardaka, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).

A City Without a Railway

For most of the nineteenth century the trains stopped short of the city. The terminus sat out at Devonshire Street, near today's Central, and everyone walked, rode a tram or took a cab the rest of the way. The State Heritage Register tells how plans to bring the line into town were drawn up as early as 1857. Two royal commissions couldn't settle a route. A third, in 1908, recommended a loop railway with six underground stations, roughly where the stations are now.

Then came John Job Crew Bradfield. In 1915, as Chief Engineer of Metropolitan Railway Construction, he put up his plan for an electric underground city loop, a bridge across the harbour carrying lines to the North Shore, and branch lines running east and west. I've written about the man himself in Bradfield – The Harbour Bridge – The Trains – Water. In his plan St James was to be "a vital link in the network", built on two levels, the Heritage Register says.

Work began in 1916 on the link between Central and Macquarie Street. Funding ran out in 1918. From 1917 to 1922 Bradfield kept up a publicity campaign for his scheme, and in 1922 excavation for Museum and St James stations finally began.

Digging Up Hyde Park

The station sits right under the northern end of Hyde Park, the ground Governor Macquarie set aside in 1810. It was built by the cut-and-cover method, which meant digging an enormous trench through the park, building the station in concrete and roofing it over again. The State Library of NSW holds albums of Bradfield's own photographs of the work from 1922–23 and says plainly that "Hyde Park was excavated to construct Museum and St James stations". The Heritage Register says the entries and exits weren't finished until 1934, because the southern part of Hyde Park was only handed back to the City Council in 1932.

The station took its name from St James' Church, Greenway's old church across Queens Square. The Heritage Register describes four platforms and four tunnels, built for a far bigger network than the one that was eventually built.

An electric train on the line to St James. NSW State Archives dates this photograph to 27 April 1926. Image: NSW Archives, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Opening Day, 20 December 1926

On 20 December 1926 the line from Central to Museum and St James opened to passengers. The Heritage Register calls it "the first underground electric railway". The State Library notes it came about nine months after Sydney's first electric train service. Museum and St James opened the same day, so they share the title of Australia's first underground stations.

The NSW Government Architect George McRae designed the station. Both Wikipedia and the Sydney Architecture site say he died before it was finished. The street building on Elizabeth Street is in what the heritage people call Inter-War Stripped Classical style: smooth sandstone, a pair of copper-clad columns framing the doorway, a pressed-metal awning, and a stepped parapet carrying a cartouche with the date "1926". The Heritage Register says only two buildings of its type survive on the city railway, this one and the Museum entrance on Liverpool Street.

The St James entrance on Elizabeth Street in about 1954, with Hyde Park behind it. Image: State Archives and Records NSW, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The same entrance in 2024. Image: Ymblanter, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Downstairs, Bradfield had a clever idea for helping passengers. Every station on the city line was tiled in the same cream body tiles, but each had its own coloured bands at the top and bottom, so you could tell where you were at a glance. Museum got red. St James got green, and the green is still there. The station's round signs were modelled on the London Underground roundel, and the Heritage Register calls it an "adaptation of the London tube-style station to the Australian situation".

One of the pedestrian subways, still lined in cream tiles with Bradfield's green banding, 2022. Image: Kgbo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The concourse is one of the best-kept interiors on the system. The Heritage Register lists five ticket windows edged in green tile, with timber counters and decorative iron grilles. The entries to the paid area are framed in iron with concertina lattice gates and pinecone finials. All of it dates from 1926.

The concourse, with its tiled columns, clock and 1926 ironwork, 2011. Image: Abesty, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The 1926 iron entry gates with their pinecone finials. Image: Abesty, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The stairs down to the platforms, 2024. Image: Ymblanter, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Thirty Years at the End of the Line

For thirty years St James was the end of the line. The western side of the loop through Town Hall to Wynyard opened on 28 February 1932, but the stretch between Wynyard and St James via Circular Quay dragged on through the Depression and the war. It opened on 22 January 1956, according to the State Library. Until then, trains from the East Hills and Illawarra lines ran into St James, emptied out, pulled into dead-end sidings in the tunnel stub north of the station, and came back out the other side. Wikipedia says the little St James signal box, worked with pistol-grip levers, was the smallest in New South Wales. It stayed in occasional use until 1990, and the sidings were formally closed on 27 July 1991.

A train at the platform, 2017. The green-banded tiles are Bradfield's colour code for St James. Image: Kgbo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The platform in 2022. Image: Kgbo, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Platforms That Never Saw a Train

Bradfield built St James with four platforms. The two outer faces carried the City Circle trains. The two inner faces were for his planned eastern and western suburbs lines, and those were never built where he planned them. When the Eastern Suburbs line finally came in 1979, it went through Town Hall and Martin Place instead. No tracks were ever laid at the inner platforms. In the 1990s the gap between them was filled in to make the single wide island platform you walk along today. If you look at the columns down the middle, they once stood between the tracks that were never laid. The disused ends of the platforms are behind the walls at either end.

One of the walled-off disused platforms, 2016. Image: Beau Giles, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Inside the disused section, where the planned eastern and western suburbs lines were meant to run. Image: Beau Giles from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The Tunnels

The unused tunnels run a long way. Wikipedia, drawing on Transport for NSW's Trippr site, says a double-track tunnel runs north about 250 metres under Macquarie Street to around the State Library, and two single-track tunnels run south to Whitlam Square, near the corner of Liverpool and College Streets.

They've had some odd tenants. In 1933–34, according to tunnel historians quoted by Wikipedia, a man named Raymond Mas grew mushrooms in the tunnel towards Circular Quay, about 4,500 kilograms a month.

One of the abandoned St James tunnels, 2018. Image: FotoSleuth, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

A ladder through a pilot shaft in the tunnels, 2018. Image: FotoSleuth, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Sheltering Sydney: The War Years

When Japan entered the war, the tunnels became part of Sydney's defences. The southern tunnels were turned into a public air-raid shelter, with chambers of about 30 metres each protected by blast walls and blast curtains. The Heritage Register calls these shelter areas "rare surviving elements of Sydney's World War II defences". Painted wartime notices can still be seen on the walls.

Faded wartime lettering on the walls of the air-raid shelter tunnels. Image: Beau Giles from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Wartime and later graffiti on the tunnel walls. Image: Beau Giles from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The northern tunnel, the never-used City Inner line, went to the air force. OzAtWar, which has worked through the RAAF unit records, says No. 1 Fighter Sector Headquarters handed operational control to the American 31st Pursuit Squadron "inside the St James Railway Tunnel" on 10 April 1942. The RAAF took it back on 3 August 1942. Here, under Macquarie Street, members of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force plotted aircraft and shipping on a huge map table. The information came in from radar stations, weather posts and the Volunteer Air Observer Corps. OzAtWar quotes a WAAAF who worked there. She remembered six-hour shifts, because "any longer would have made us ill as the air conditioning was not very effective". She went down by "a set of wooden air raid steps leading down from the middle of the road opposite the library", at Shakespeare Place. She was on duty in the tunnel the night the Japanese midget submarines got into the harbour, and she said the people of Sydney thought it was "just another practice raid". On 31 August 1942 the unit was ordered out to Bankstown, and it moved by 7 September.

The wooden staircase lasted until 16 November 1968, when it burned. Wikipedia says smoke from the fire stopped trains for about twelve hours.

Big Ben, a Lake and the Movies

After the war the tunnels found a career in show business. The Heritage Register says ABC sound engineers used a bell in the southern tunnels in the 1960s to make fake Big Ben chimes for a television series, and that the bell is still down there. Other sources disagree. Journalist Steve Dow and others, quoted on Wikipedia, say the bell was put there by artist Nigel Helyer in 1992 for a work called An UnRequited Place, with the ABC broadcasting its midnight tolling for 21 days. Both stories are told, and I haven't been able to settle which is right.

Down the northern tunnel is the "fabled St James Lake", as the Heritage Register calls it, a low stretch of tunnel that has slowly filled with water. In the drought years of the mid-2000s there were serious proposals, backed by Clean Up Australia's Ian Kiernan, to use it to store recycled water for the Domain and the Botanic Garden. In January 2008 work began on a scheme to send rainwater from Parliament House into the tunnels. The tunnels and platforms have also been used for filming, including Police Rescue in the 1990s and The Matrix Revolutions (2003).

Château Tanunda – The Brandy of Distinction

Now back to that sign. The Heritage Register says the Château Tanunda neon sign at the Elizabeth Street entrance was put up in about 1938 by Tucker & Co., the brandy's New South Wales agents (later Tucker, Lingard & Co.). It calls it "a rare surviving example of a 1930s neon sign in Sydney". Sydney was full of neon in the thirties, but nearly all of it has gone. This one survived because it was in a heritage station and, perhaps, because nobody ever got round to taking it down. Tucker & Co. used the slogan for years. A 1962 Robinsons map of Sydney's historic buildings was published "in association with Tucker & Co. P/L – NSW agents for Chateau Tanunda – the brandy of distinction", according to a reference on the Heritage NSW database.

The entrance in 2023, with the station building beside Hyde Park. Image: Windmemories, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Elizabeth Street exit gates on the concourse, still framed by the original green ironwork and pinecone finials, 2024. Image: Ymblanter, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Château Tanunda itself is in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. The winery's own history says it was established in 1890, when phylloxera was destroying Europe's vineyards. The idea was a grand château that could rival the French. It bought grapes from 560 local growers, "paid a pound per gallon", and the winery says it became "the largest winery in the Southern Hemisphere at the time". The wine-history site robertonfray.com says the Seppelt family took over in 1916, and brandy became the main business. A still house at the front of the estate made brandy "used throughout the Commonwealth for medicinal purposes", known as "the brandy of distinction". People who grew up in the 1950s and 60s may remember the radio jingle "No wonder, no wonder, it's Château Tanunda", quoted by a reader on the Footy Almanac site.

The bluestone Château Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, 2016. Image: Mitchemck, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The view from the Château Tanunda wine cellars, about 1925, by the South Australian State Government Photographer. Image: State Government Photographer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

Vineyards at Château Tanunda, 2006. Image: Fairv8, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The winery's fortunes faded under corporate ownership. It says that by the 1990s the property, then owned by Southcorp, was "a shell of its former glory". John Geber and his family bought it in 1998 and restored it. Château Tanunda opened a Sydney cellar door in 2021, so the brandy that's been advertised under Hyde Park since the 1930s has a home in the city again.

Heritage and Recent Years

In 1997 the Institution of Engineers Australia gave St James a Historic Engineering Marker for the engineering behind it. The station was listed on the State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999, as the "St. James Railway Station group". The Register calls it one of "the most ornate station interiors in the NSW railway system". The old toilet block in the Elizabeth Street building became a café in the 1990s. Lifts arrived in 2010, first between platform and concourse and later from the concourse to the street. In 2018 Transport for NSW called for expressions of interest in turning the tunnels into Sydney's next underground attraction.

Next Time You're There

Take a moment at the top of the stairs. The green tiles are Bradfield's, the iron gates are from 1926, and the neon above you was switched on before the war. Behind the walls at either end of the platform are tracks that were never laid, an air-raid shelter, an RAAF bunker and an underground lake.

References

• Heritage NSW, State Heritage Register, "St. James Railway Station group" (SHR 01248) and Sydney Trains s170 entry "St James Railway Station".
• Heritage NSW, "Museum Railway Station".
• State Library of NSW, "Construction of Sydney City Railway, 1922–1923 / photographed by J. Bradfield" and "Underground albums".
• Dictionary of Sydney, "St James railway station".
• OzAtWar, "No. 1 Fighter Sector Headquarters RAAF, later known as No. 101 Fighter Control Unit RAAF".
• Wikipedia, "St James railway station, Sydney" (for the signal box, sidings, mushroom farm, tunnel lengths, the bell, the lake and lifts).
• Château Tanunda, "Our Story"; robertonfray.com, "Old Vines, New World" (July 2026); The Plus Ones (2023) on the Sydney cellar door.
• Mickey Randall, "The Chateau Tanunda neon sign in St. James Station", The Footy Almanac, January 2025.