Australian Museum - 1 William Street, Cnr College & William Streets - Sydney

The Australian Museum

Built - 1846 - 1857
Architect - Mortimer Lewis - Colonial ArchitectAdditional Architects -1861 - 1866 - James Barnet - Colonial Architect - Barnet Wing1890 - 1892 - Walter Vernon - Colonial Architect - Lewis Wing Expansion



Found In 1827 To House A Natural History Collection, Australia's First Public Museum Has Been At The Forefront Of Scientific Research, Collection And Education For 190 Years. Originally Designed By Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, The Building  Has Led A Colorful Life Marked By Adaption And Change.

Construction Of The Museum Began In 1846, But Was Dogged By Controversy; Lewis Resigned In 1849 Amid A Scandal Over The Management Of Public Funds. The Classical Sandstone Building Was Roofless Until 1850, When Its Grand Dome Was Finally Abandoned In Favour Of Skylight. It Opened To The Public In 1857 With Only The Long Gallery For Exhibitions - Scarcely Enough For An Institution Of High Ambition.
After A Succession Of Additions By Government Architects - James Barnet, Walter Liberty Vernon And Edward Farmer - By The 20th Century A Rationalisation Was Sorely Needed. Colin Still Of The Public Work Department Designed A Link To The Major Wings, Improving Visitor Circulation And Installed A Glass Roof Over The Courtyard With An Atrium To House The Library And Temporary Exhibitions.

In 2008 Came Major New Collections Building By Johnson Pilton Walker Architects (JPW). Designed To House Over Ten Million Zoological Specimens, The Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI) Has A Glass Facade Inspired By The Luminous Color Play Of Butterfly Wings.

The New Architectural Language Was Reinforced In the 2015 Addition Of Crystal Hall By Neeson Murcutt Architects And Joseph Grech Architect, Which Relocated The Main Entry To William Street And Ushered a New Chapter In The Museum's Life


In 2017, Generations Of Ad Hoc Changes Have Been Swept Away. The Original Floors Have Been Uncovered, The Marble Columns Revealed And Restored And The Original Wire Fretwork Re Installed On All Levels.
This Has Revived A Sense Of Grandeur And Wonder, And For The First Time, Sydneysiders Can Now Imagine What Those First Visitors in 1857 Might Have Felt As They Proudly Viewed Their New Museum And It's Curiosities. 

City Of Sydney Fire Station - 213 Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW

City Of Sydney Fire Station

Built In 1888, It Was Designed by James Barnet, The Colonial Architect of the Time.

In 2017, The City Of Sydney Fire Station Marks 130 Years Of Uninterrupted Operation.


The Original Building Was Designed By James Barnet,


The Victorian Free Classical Style Of the Original 1887 Building Was based On The Operational Experience Of The London Metropolitan Fire Brigade, And Considered Innovative For Its Time

In The Rear Courtyard, Behind Three Engine Bays With Direct Access To the Street, Was A Small Stable. Harness And Sway Bars For The Horses Were Suspended Over Each Horse By Weights Running Into Tubes, These Were Tripped When the Collar Was Snapped To, And The Horses Moved Into The Engine Bay.


From Dusk Till Dawn, Junior Firefighters Spent Three Hours At A time Fire Spotting Duty On A 20 Metre Tower (Called The Pigeon box)

In 1907 The Building Was Extended  Along Castlereagh Street North. In 1923 The Old Boot Factory Next Door Was Converted into A Gym, Carpentry Workshop And Dormitory. In The Same Year, As Sydney Boomed In The Roaring 20's The Ground Floor Was Converted With Two New Engine Bays To house A Magnificent Chromed Fleet Of New Motorised Fire Engines.


Despite Urgent Calls in 1934 For A Bigger Fire Station, It Wasn't Until 1999, That An Application Was Finally Approved To Refurbish And Re Use This Site.  By 2003, The New Station Was Completed, But The Planned Full Conservation And Restoration Of It’s 1887 Presecessor Was Not.

In May 2017, Funds Were Finally Allocated For The Completion If The Conservation And Restoration Works. This Will Take Place Over 3 Years, Beginning In Late 2017

Sydney Garden Palace - Part 2

Sydney Garden Palace - Part 2 

The Pictures Show Here Are From

the Great Exhibition... The Expo Of 1888. You May Recall That Exactly 100 Years Later In 1988 The World Expo Was Held In Brisbane Queensland. 

It Would've Been A Grand Event To See

The Sydney Crystal Garden Palace and The Great Exhibition of 1851


There are a few photos of the Crystal palace Located at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney Australia. This magnificent structure was built to hole the World Expo in the 1880's. Unfortunately within a couple years of it being built, it burnt down.
It appears to be one of the most magnificent buildings in Sydney for the time, far outweighing the Queen Victroria building etc and other buildings in Sydney of that era. There are only a few photos left.


the Palace was composed almost entirely of iron and glass with wood used only in the fittings and floorboards. The construction used 2300 cast-iron girders, 358 wrought-iron trusses to support the roof, 325 kilometres of sash bars supporting glass weighing more than 406 tonnes and 3230 hollow cast-iron columns which, as well as being the primary supporting infrastructure, served as water pipes to carry off rainwater from the 54.7 kilometres of guttering.

The final structure was an impressive 563 metres long and 124 metres wide with a central transept 22 metres wide and rising to 32.9 metres, specially designed to enclose within the building a grove of tall elms that public opinion would not allow to be cut down. The structure covered over seven hectares of ground and enclosed 934 560 cubic metres of space while galleries added another two hectares to the floor area.

If opening day was a sensation the following weeks exceeded all expectations. Carried from the Midlands and the North by the newly inaugurated popular excursion trains and coastal steamers, visitors to the Exhibition came in numbers that first alarmed, then surprised and finally delighted the organisers. Men, women and children came, they came singly, they came in families, they came, in the end, in droves. On one day in October 109 915 people were admitted to the Exhibition.

Other statistics add to the legend of the Exhibition. It attracted no fewer than six million visitors during the 141 days it was open to the public—many from overseas; an incredible number considering a population much lower, and poorer, than today, and limited transport options—no international flights or coach tours! The Exhibition also achieved several other firsts, including the first public toilets—which brought in a substantial contribution of £1769 to the overall profit of £186 000—and it was the first, and possibly the last, to actually make a profit, part of which was used to provide London with a cultural and educational centre, including the famous Victoria and Albert Museum. The total value of the exhibits was estimated at about £2 million—not including the fantastic Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light) diamond, now part of the British crown jewels, and which was considered too difficult to value. The figures clearly show the Great Exhibition in its spectacular Palace was a resounding triumph.

Not surprisingly, the phenomenal success encouraged international emulation and the rest of the world quickly followed suit. Australia’s first international trade exhibition opened in Sydney in 1879. It was housed in a specially constructed large and ornate building called the Garden Palace on land now included in the Botanic Gardens. Unhappily it was destroyed by fire in 1882

This Photo Was Taken On The 27th January 1880

This Last PhotoOf The Palace Was Taken From "Pinchgut Island", which Is Of A Distance Of 1520 Yards 

The Palace Is 

800 Hundred  Feet Long

500 Hundred Feet Broad

Covers 5 & A Quarter Acres In Floorspace 

Sydney Police Court - Historical Marker Number 94 -

Sydney Police Court - Corner Of Phillip & Alfred Streets - Sydney 

This Court was located between the Water Police  Court & The Police Station in Phillip Street & was designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet & completed in 1886.