The Museum of Sydney (MOS) is a historical collection and exhibit, built on the ruins of the house of New South Wales' first Governor,
Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New South Wales, governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
Phillip was educated at Royal Hospital School, Gree ...
, on the present-day corner of
Phillip and
Bridge Street, Sydney
Bridge Street is a street in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Bridge Street runs for in a west–east direction with traffic flowing in both directions. It is situated in the northern portion of the central business district. ...
.
Description
The museum is situated on the remains of the
first Government House that was built in 1788, later deemed inadequate in 1832 and demolished in 1845–1846. In 1982 there were plans to develop on this site which was subject to an archaeological investigation. The first excavations took place in 1983.
In October 1983
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of govern ...
Neville Wran
Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman o ...
announced that the site would be preserved and that an international competition would be held for a building that recognises the site's history. The museum and the site it is located on is managed by
Museums of History NSW
Museums of History NSW is a statutory body of the government of New South Wales that is responsible for historic sites, state collections and archives in New South Wales, Australia. In 2023, the former State Archives and Records Authority was m ...
.
The museum building on the site was designed by
Denton Corker Marshall
Denton Corker Marshall is an international architecture practice based in Melbourne, Australia.
History
Denton Corker Marshall was established in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1972. It was founded by architects John Denton, Bill Corker, and Barri ...
architects.
The Museum of Sydney explores colonial and contemporary
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
through objects, pictures, and new digital media techniques. Panoramic views of Sydney— from 1788 until today— stretch across walls and video screens. Sydney's
convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...
era is explored in a giant showcase of goods and chattels recovered from more than 25 archaeological digs.
Origins of the name
When it was commissioned, the project was called the ''First Government House Museum''.
[Poland, Peter, (President, Woollahra History and Heritage Society Inc). "Intellectual Hijacking" (letter to the editor). '']Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...
''. 1 December 1993. p. 14. "Geraldine O'Brien is right when she describes "The Museum of Sydney on the Site of First Government House" as a mouthful (Herald, November 20). The sad thing is that this title will be shortened to "The Museum of Sydney" which will both obscure the real significance of this very important and historic site and totally mislead those who visit the museum. The significance of the First Government House is that it was the powerhouse of the European settlement in this part of the Pacific. On this site decisions were made which not only affected the exploration of and expansion into Australia of the newcomers with all that that meant for both them and the Aborigines but also decisions which reached out to the world from Cape Town to Calcutta, Canton and California and all points in between. To call the museum which should be interpreting the far-reaching significance of this site "The Museum of Sydney" reflects an arrogance that assumes that Sydney is the only place that matters and an act of intellectual hijacking on the part of those who have been given responsibility of what was to be "The First Government House Museum"."[Bain, Adrian. "Phillip needs filip" (letter to the editor). '']Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
''The Daily Telegraph'', also nicknamed ''The Tele'', is an Australian tabloid newspaper published by Nationwide News Pty Limited (NWN), a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. It is published Monday through Satu ...
''. 21 December 2002. p. 32. While the museum building was under construction in November 1993, the New South Wales Minister for the Arts announced that the museum would be known as the ''Museum of Sydney on the Site of First Government House'',
[O'Brien, Geraldine (20 November 1993). "History underfoot in new museum on significant site". ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. p. 15.][''Local Government (General) Amendment (Rate Exemptions) Regulation 2009'' (NSW) and reg 123, ''Local Government (General) Regulation 2005'' (NSW).] described in the press at the time as a "mouthful"
[ and commonly contracted to The Museum of Sydney.][ The change of name attracted protests.]["Column 8". ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. 27 January 1995. p. 1. "IT WAS, perhaps, the most genteel demonstration ever held in Sydney—the holding up of placards by the Friends of the First Government House Site at the opening of First Government House Place in Bridge Street yesterday. The Friends were the first to agitate in the early 1980s to stop the site being covered by an office block. An archaeological survey uncovered the footings of Governor Phillip's house, and after long negotiations, a museum has been built there, to open on March 11. Why are the Friends upset? They had expected their preferred name, First Government House Museum, would be chosen. Instead, the Heritage Houses Trust has called it The Museum of Sydney - so some 50 Friends had their quiet, polite, gentle and heartfelt say when the place was opened."][
]
Forecourt
The public entrance to the museum is via First Government House Place in Bridge Street, Sydney.[ The outline of Phillip's residence, the first Government House, is marked out on the plaza with inlaid stone.][ Excavation of the site revealed examples of covered drains dated to the late 1790s and brick barrel drains dated to circa 1811 and another to circa 1828. The remains of the drains and privies are shown in their original context, along with other archeological artifacts, in glass ]display case
A display case (also called a showcase, display cabinet, shadow box, or vitrine) is a Cabinet (furniture), cabinet with one or often more transparency and translucency, transparent tempered glass (or plastic, normally Poly(methyl methacrylate), ...
s built into the pavement of the forecourt.[Wong, Anna (1999)]
"Colonial Sanitation, Urban Planning and Social Reform in Sydney, New South Wales 1788–1857"
''Australasian Historical Archaeology''. Vol. 17, pp. 58–69. Accessed 27 August 2011.
See also
* Culture of Sydney
The cultural life of Sydney is dynamic and multicultural. Many of the individual cultures that make up the Sydney mosaic are centred on the cultural, artistic, ethnic, linguistic and religious communities formed by waves of immigration. Sydney i ...
* History of Sydney
The history of Sydney is the story of the peoples of the land that has become modern Sydney.
Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal Australians have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 30,000 years, and Australian archaeology, Aboriginal Syd ...
References
External links
*
Museum of Sydney
Archived website, on the Site of First Government House landing page at The Historic Houses Trust.
* Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...
]
* Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...
]
{{authority control
City museums in Australia, Sydney
Museums in Sydney
History museums in Australia
Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales
Bridge Street, Sydney