The Conservatorium

Originally commissioned in 1815 as the stables for the proposed Government House, the oldest conservatorium building was designed by the convict architect Francis Greenway.

In the Gothic Picturesque architectural style with turrets, the building was described as a "palace for horses" and is a portrayal of the romantic vision of Governor Macquarie and the British architectural trends of the time. It is the only example of a gothic building designed by Greenway still standing. The cost and apparent extravagance was one of the reasons Macquarie was recalled to Britain.

The Conservatorium (or ‘The Con’) was built as Government Stables, by convict workers between 1817-1821. In front of the stables was a forecourt, where horses, pedestrians and horse-drawn coaches would have entered. The forecourt remained in use until 1917, when it was replaced by a bitumen road.

This area now contains the most intact evidence the convict-built road system, which linked the stables to the first Government House, the Botanic Gardens and Farm Cove from the 1820s, and to the new Government House from the 1840s.

With that road system, also came Sydney’s first stormwater drainage system. Much of this history was uncovered during redevelopment of parts of the Conservatorium during 1998-2001. Here’s a convict-built dish drain and box drain, that would have drained water from the forecourt.

Nearby was a cistern, carved 2.5m into the sandstone, during the early 1800s, to collect rainwater for drinking and other uses. A cistern is different to a well, which collects groundwater. The water table is 15m below ground level at this location.

That cistern appears to have been backfilled in the 1860s. Road workers rediscovered it in 1917, before it was buried again during roadworks. During redevelopment of the Con, it was excavated and now sits almost in place (actually 1m lower) inside the building.

Lots of material was found in the cistern backfill, including bones (sheep, pigs, cattle, chicken & geese), personal effect (buttons, a shoe, a bathing sponge), fruit and vegetable seeds, and broken ceramics.

The finest water engineering is associated with the elliptical drains that were built with the construction of the New Government House in the 1840s. During 1998-2001, approximately 33m were uncovered and recorded by archaeologists. It was then cut into 1m segments and removed.

In order to interpret the significance of the drains onsite, there was a proposal to suspend sections of drain across the foyer (see artist’s impression). But the idea was deemed to be ‘too hard’.

But, you can still view a couple of sections of elliptical drain in the foyer. To construct the elliptical drain, it was first necessary to build a dish drain. Bricks were wedged into clay. Then the top was formed by positioning bricks into an arch with wedges of shell mortar.