Cadman's Cottage
Circular Quay West, Facing George Street North

Cadman’s Cottage looks almost shy against Circular Quay West — two storeys of sandstone that used to sit a short splash above high water, before the quay was filled and seawalled and the harbour stepped back. Built in 1815–16 as the government coxswain’s barracks beside the Government Dockyard and Commissariat Stores, it’s still among the oldest surviving residential buildings in Sydney.

It takes its popular name from John Cadman, the longest-serving government coxswain — not the first person through the door. Transported for horse theft on the Barwell (arrived 1798), he worked the government boats from about 1806, got a free pardon in 1821, and held the coxswain’s post from 1827 until 1845, when the office was abolished after he retired. From here he and his family oversaw the boats that shifted stores and produce around Port Jackson. Earlier coxswains occupied the building after it opened; Cadman simply stayed the longest.

After 1845 the cottage housed Sydney’s Water Police (with a southern extension for offices and cells), then from the 1860s folded into the Sydney Sailors’ Home precinct next door. Since 1976 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has managed it as Cadmans Cottage Historic Site / a harbour information point. People still murmur “Francis Greenway” — Heritage NSW and conservation research leave that attribution unproven. The photographs here show the cottage, its garden setting, and the Circular Quay West / George Street North frame that replaced the old foreshore.