If you’ve walked the southwestern edge of the Botanic Garden and wondered why the lawn feels oddly ceremonial, you’re standing near where Sydney briefly had a Crystal Palace of its own. The Garden Palace was the vast exhibition hall Colonial Architect James Barnet designed in the Inner Domain for the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. Contractor John Young (with Hudson Brothers) drove construction from January 1879 so the cruciform timber, brick and iron palace could open that September. Its great dome dominated the skyline between today’s State Library precinct and the Conservatorium; more than a million visitors came between 17 September 1879 and 20 April 1880.
After the Exhibition closed, the Palace kept busy with events, offices and collections. In the early hours of 22 September 1882 fire completely destroyed the building in about forty minutes. Irreplaceable official records, art works and museum collections went with it. An inquest returned an open verdict; arson was widely suspected but never proved.
Almost nothing of the structure survived above ground. A later garden and fountain mark the former dome site. The photographs here preserve views of a building that reshaped the Domain for only three years — a pictorial memorial, not a standing hall.
