Garden Palace Fire, 1882

The Garden Palace was situated just south of the present Conservatorium of Music (in the southwestern end of the Royal Botanic Gardens) and was built for the Sydney International Exhibition which opened on 17 September 1879. It was designed by James Barnet and constructed in just eight months.

Three years later it was destroyed by fire.

Documents below are from the record series NRS 906 Colonial Secretary: Special Bundles – 1879-82 Garden Palace (applications for space in, report of the Colonial Architect on the fire, newspaper reports of the inquiry into the fire, re records lost in the fire, etc [1/2527.2].

Construction

The design was cruciform with nave and transepts with a central dome. Under the central dome stood a bronze statue of Queen Victoria. Built of iron, glass and wood with brick foundations, it was said to have cost £192,000 [1] at the time of the opening.

The ground floor covered 5 1/8 acres to which, when the areas of the basement, galleries and tower floors are added, make a total area of 8 1/3 acres.

The letter below is a request for the delivery of marble, bronze and imitation bronze statues (purchased at the Melbourne Exhibition) to be positioned and alternated by flowering shrubs. Included is the schedule of works in marble and bronze.

Space for the Census Office

Letter from the Registrar General requesting a space in the Garden Palace for the Census Office, 15 March 1881 (81/1841)

Sydney International Exhibition

The Sydney International Exhibition opened on 17 September 1879. Browse photos in the catalogue

Post-Exhibition

After the exhibition closed on 20 April 1880 it was used as an auditorium and gallery and to house the first mining and technological museum [2]. It also provided office space for a number of government departments, and the basement was used to house official records (such as the 1881 Census). These were lost in the fire.

Outbreak of Fire

Fire broke out at about 5:40am on 22 September 1882 totally consuming the building in about 40 minutes.

Report from Lands on documents destroyed

Report from various branches in the Lands Office as to whether records can be reproduced or specimens recovered from the remains of the fire etc.

Report from Railways on documents destroyed

Questions asked in the Legislative Assembly

Estimate of loss

Had it survived Sydney would have been very different, and so the Garden Palace may be seen as an aspect of Sydney as it might have been.

Footnotes

[1] The Illustrated Sydney News, October 1882

[2] The Garden Palace, entry in the Australian Encyclopaedia (3rd Edition) Vol. 3 pp. 134-5

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