Architecture

Old Government House shows the direct translation of English building forms to Australia. It contains original eighteenth century English joinery, no other examples of which occur in Australia to this standard. The work of three significant architects (Watts, Greenway and Vernon) is also demonstrated in the house.

Old Government House is an aesthetically significant Palladian-style country house and illustrates the best of the elegant "Old Colonial Georgian" style of architecture.

Both of the Macquaries had a strong interest in buildings and their design with Governor Macquarie promoting the construction of much of the colony’s first permanent infrastructure, including large numbers of public buildings. Elizabeth Macquarie (née Elizabeth Campbell of Airds) is credited with being ‘intelligently interested in gardening and agriculture’, attributes she had demonstrated in laying out the grounds at Airds in Scotland. She brought architectural pattern books to Australia and is said to have influenced the design of buildings which included the Judge Advocate’s and Colonial Secretary’s houses in Macquarie Place, Sydney, and the Female Orphanage at Rydalmere, which was modelled on Airds.

Of the ten governors who lived at Old Government House it was Governor Macquarie and his wife who most influenced the appearance of the house and its grounds. The most substantial additions to the property – two side pavilions connected to the main building by passages – were designed around 1815 by Lieutenant Watts, one of three architects in the colony at the time. The portico which graces the front of the house was designed by the convict architect, Francis Greenway. Extensive changes made by Mrs Macquarie to the gardens and grounds are documented in correspondence, and it is certain that this influence carried in no small way to the interiors of the household which, as the Governor's wife, was her domain.

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Floodlit Georgian architecture