COMMUNITY INVESTMENT MANAGER

This is Australia’s second Government House; the first one was just a tent. This building was designed in England & no one really gave the practicalities much thought when the design arrived in Australia. Hence building started & as it would turn out the house is the wrong way around for the Southern Hemisphere & Sydney Harbour!!! Hence the hot kitchens got full sun & in an Australia summer that’s a real scorcher, & the servants could go outside & catch a beautiful view whilst the master of the house & official guests shivered in winter & never got much sunlight or a view in the study, bedrooms etc.

Open to the public Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays &; it’s FREE! It is the official residence & reception space of the Governor of New South Wales.

The first Government House of New South Wales (not this one), was a structure made of canvas & timber brought from England by the First Fleet. Built after the Fleet's arrival in January 1788, a substantial government house was located on the corner of what is now Bridge & Phillip streets in Sydney (Museum of Sydney stands there now) completed by 1789 using English bricks, native stone & a quantity of convict baked sandstock bricks from Sydney. It was extended & repaired by the following eight Governors, but was always in poor condition &; was demolished in 1846.

This residence is the Governors TOWN residence (the Governors COUNTRY residence is @ Parramatta ~ see later in my pages) & was built under the direction of James Bloodsworth, a convict builder responsible for the construction of most of the colony's buildings between 1788 & 1800. The house was an architectural milestone for Australia, & the first proportionately classical building in the continent. It even included Australia's first staircase. The building adapted quickly to the Australian climate. A verandah was added by Governor King circa 1800 & a drawing room was added in a side wing in the same year. By 1816 Francis Greenway was commissioned to construct a substantial extension &; ballroom by Governor Macquarie, transforming Phillip's house into an Italianate cottage. The stables commissioned for the house by Macquarie in 1816 still stand in the Botanic Gardens & form a facade for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. This building is best described as a small castle & retains many of its original features & nostalgic battlements & towers. Much of the Governor's Domain; to the east of the original house has survived today as the adjacent areas of parkland known as The Domain, the Royal Botanic Gardens, & also the gardens of today's Government House.

Government Hill is Anchorage's oldest neighborhood. Located at the north end of town, on a hill, Government Hill butts up against the Port of Anchorage and Elmendorf Air Force Base.