Francis Greenway’s Public Fountain – Bent & Spring Street

Under Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Francis Greenway designed a sandstone Doric public fountain for Macquarie Place that small civic triangle that marked the administrative heart of early Sydney. Built about 1819–20 by stonemason Edward Cureton (with taste often credited also to Elizabeth Macquarie), it stood on the western side of the reserve so townspeople could draw water without entering the Governor’s Domain. The Bent and Spring Streets corner sits in the same colonial civic precinct; period descriptions put the fountain in Macquarie Place, not as a free-standing ornament mid-intersection.

It was one of Greenway’s civic works from the Macquarie years — a period Commissioner John Thomas Bigge famously called extravagant. By the 1880s the fountain was dilapidated; it was demolished around 1883–87 and replaced by the statue of merchant and pastoralist Thomas Sutcliffe Mort that still occupies the western corner. No Greenway fountain fabric survives above ground.

Photographs here relate to the Macquarie Place site and the memory of Greenway’s lost Doric fountain.

Sydney Garden Palace – Part 5

Sydney’s Garden Palace was built in the Domain for the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition, which showcased industry, arts and science. The grand exhibition hall hosted displays and public performances before a fire destroyed the building in 1882. This post explores the musical life associated with the former site.

Sydney Garden Palace

Part 5 of this Sydney Garden Palace series looks at the music and performances associated with the site, including a programme featuring Beethoven and Grieg.

The Sydney Fig Trees Inspired Me To Paint Again

Well It Has Been A Few Years Since I Painted anything.

Pinchgut Island - Fort Dension - Sydney Cove

Reverend John Dunmore Lang Remembered As He Said - 

"An Island Called Pinchgut, Consisting Of One SolitAry

Governor Phillip Island at farm Cove, a conical peak on a perfect stunted bush have one function – as a dump until he had time to build a jail for convicts who committed crimes after reaching the colony. Maroon convicts who is Russian of bread and water was Road to them once a week changed its name from rock island to pinch gap.

Sometimes the hangman went out on the third boat for years the remnants of a man’s bones hung in chains on a giblet on the island Francis Morgan convicted with others of the murder of a man on the North Shore, with strung up as a warning. There’s a legend I asked if he wished to make any last remark he looked about him and said well you have yeah indeed a beautiful harbour

Early 1940 after two American warships had sneaked into the harbour at night without a pilot Governor gipps decided to rets how many gipps decided to arrange a battery on the island

He said gangs of convicts to level the rock and almost had the job done when he ran out of funds. The ruining of what had once been a lovely if sinister spot sent Dr Dunmore Lang into a rage and he denounce the official golf or Hun.

Military minds however could not resist the law of the island. When there was a Russian invasion scared during the Crimean war I thought was built on it – a Martello tower without buildings for power to magazines and quarters for a small permanent garrison foundations were quarry deep into the island rock. Stone for the 12 foot thick walls was brought from Carrabba point. The fort completed in 1957 was named after the governor so William Denison. The island is now used to the tide gauge in light and fog signal station. It’s 1 o’clock gun was discontinued in 1942

Military minds however could not resist the law of the island. When there was a Russian invasion scared during the Crimean war I thought was built on it – a Martello tower without buildings for power to magazines and quarters for a small permanent garrison foundations were quarry deep into the island rock. Stone for the 12 foot thick walls was brought from Carrabba point. The fort completed in 1957 was named after the governor so William Denison. The island is now used to the tide gauge in light and fog signal station. It’s 1 o’clock gun was discontinued in 1942

  

*+****** FRANCIS MORGAN. Was Strung Up on A Gibbet 

-  more Research Into This 

South Head – The Macquarie Lighthouse

South Head And The Macquarie Lighthouse 

Stand on Old South Head Road at Vaucluse and you are on Australia’s longest continuously used navigational-beacon site. A flagstaff and fire/beacon signalled shipping from the early 1790s; Australia’s first purpose-built lighthouse followed when Governor Lachlan Macquarie laid the foundation stone in 1816. Convict architect Francis Greenway designed the Palladian-inspired tower, lit in 1818. Macquarie famously rewarded Greenway with a conditional pardon after calling the work “noble and magnificent.”

Local sandstone proved soft; within decades the tower needed iron banding, and by the 1870s the lantern room could not take modern optics. Colonial Architect James Barnet designed a replacement that deliberately echoed Greenway’s form. The new electric light (among the earliest electrically powered lighthouses) commenced in 1883 a few metres from the old tower; the Greenway lighthouse was demolished in 1887. Hornby Light, the separate Lower Light at the tip of South Head (1858), had already been added after wrecks including the Dunbar (1857) showed the need for a clearer harbour-entrance mark.

The present Barnet tower, keepers’ quarters and archaeological remains of the Greenway lightstation are managed by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, with the working light under AMSA arrangements. Photographs here show the Macquarie Lighthouse and South Head setting.

Governor Macquarie Laid The Foundation Stone Of The Tower In July 1816, & Had Expected The Job To Be Finished  In Nine Months. 

Francis Greenway Didn’t Like Using The Samdstonw Quarried On Site As It Was Too Soft, And He Knew It Wouldn’t Last. 

Within 50 Years The Tower Had To Be Reinforced With Iron. By 1883 The Whole Elegant Structure Had Been Condemned. 

I. December 1817 Governor Macquarie Made Up A Breakfast Party To Drive Out And Inspect The Work. He was So Delighted With The “Noble & Magnificent Ediface” - That He Gave Francis Greenway His Conditional Pardon. 

When The Lamps In The Original Lighthouse Were First Lit They “Astonished A Mariner When He Beheld Them From 38 Miles Out At Sea. 

The Second Light, Can, Officially Be Seen 25 Miles Off shore. 

MY COUNTRY

The Love Of Field & Coppice, 

Of Green Shaded Lanes 

Of Ordered Woods And Gardens

Is Running Through Your Veins 

Strong Love Of Blue Grey Distance

Brown Streams & Soft Dim Skies

I Know But Cannot Share It

My Love's Otherwise 

I Love A Sunburnt Country

A Land Of Sweeping Plains

Of Ragged Mountain Ranges 

Of Droughts And Flooding Rains

I Love Her Far Horizons

I Love The Jewel Sea

Her Beauty And Her Terror

St Jude’s Cemetery – Avoca Street – Randwick

St J

St Jude’s Cemetery on Avoca Street is a historic cemetery in Randwick.

ude's Cemetery - Avoca Street - Randwick 

- Sir Frederick William Pottinger 

- Sir Alfred Stephen - LEIUTENANT GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES 

- Sir Edward Deas Thomson

- Sir Edward Knox

- Henry Mort

- Charles Wentworth 

- Sir James Martin 

- Sir William Manning - 1st Chancellor Of Sydney University 

- William Busby - Busby's Bore

- Archibald Mosman

The Sydney Mint – Macquarie Street – Sydney – New South Wales

The Sydney Mint 

Macquarie Street 

How many McQuarrie‘s critics never cease to winning out that he had virtually paid in rum for Sydneys second general hospital.

Looking back, it seems a brilliant street by the government to have acquired a huge public building for nothing, whatever that means employed.

The first General Hospital was in what is now lower George Street. By McQuarrie‘s time it was a filthy house of death. The governor then let the contract for a new one in McQuarrie Street to 3 men who had never built anything-

 

The governor then let the contract for a new one in McQuarrie Street to 3 men who had never built anything-

Darcy went Worth

-random black cell

– Alexander Riley

In return they were permitted to import 45,000 gallons of rum in three years.

This was almost a monopoly, but the three speculators do not seem to have made much profit on it.

The hospital, the first part of which was opened in 1916, was in three sections.

The present Sydney hospital stands on the side of the large central block, which was pulled down in 1879. To the north and the south of the main block with separate -surgeons quarters. The wing in the north still stands, as Parliament house.

It is a quite a mess of additions, tacked on to save space to cramped legislators. It’s twin the Southern building, which first housed the assistant surgeons, has escaped uglification. It stands at the top of Macquarie Street, it’s pillared facade admired as a fine relic of colonial design.

From 1885 to 1926 a branch of the Royal Mint worked there, producing the first New South Wales sovereign Beloved by collectors.

It now houses government departments, including ironically, the state housing commission.

The Mint in Sydney, also known as the Sydney Mint or the Rum Hospital, has a fascinating history deeply intertwined with the city's colonial past, economic development, and architectural heritage. Here's an overview of its history:

Background and Construction:

• The Mint was originally established in response to the need for a reliable currency in the early colony of New South Wales, which suffered from a shortage of official coinage.
• The building that would become the Mint was originally intended to be the Rum Hospital, constructed using funds generated from the importation of rum.

Architectural Significance:

• The Rum Hospital (future Mint) was designed by convict architect Francis Greenway, who was renowned for his neoclassical designs.
• The building's design was influenced by the classical architectural principles of symmetry, proportion, and grandeur.

Conversion to the Mint:

• The Rum Hospital was not used as a medical facility for long. In the 1850s, it was repurposed as the Sydney Mint to address the shortage of local coinage.
• The Mint was equipped with machinery to produce gold sovereigns and silver coins. It played a crucial role in providing a stable and official currency for the colony.

Coin Production:

• From 1855 to 1926, the Sydney Mint produced gold sovereigns, half-sovereigns, and other denominations of silver coins.
• The coins minted here had a significant impact on the local economy and trade, as well as contributing to the establishment of the Australian currency system.

Architectural Features:

• The building features a distinctive colonnaded facade with Doric columns and ornate detailing.
• The exterior of the building reflects the neoclassical style that Greenway favored in his designs.

Modern Uses:

• The Mint ceased its coin production operations in 1926, and the building went through various uses and renovations.
• In the 21st century, the Mint has been repurposed as a museum, showcasing its historical significance, the history of coin production, and the economic development of Australia.

Heritage Status:

• The Sydney Mint is a heritage-listed building, recognized for its architectural and historical significance.

The Sydney Mint's history reflects the evolution of colonial Sydney, from its early struggles for currency to its establishment as a reliable mint and its subsequent transformation into a museum that preserves the legacy of coin production and its impact on Australian society and economy.