Accommodation for the Colonial Treasury

The Colonial Treasury Department was established on the 28 April 1824 and was located at the official residence of the first Colonial Treasurer, Mr William Balcombe. Balcombe's private quarters and the Treasury office were housed under the one roof, his wife and children upstairs, the government transactions attended to below. The Treasury building, located on the western corner of Bent and O'Connell Streets Sydney had been built by convict labour for William Cox the Paymaster of the 102nd Regiment just prior to Balcombe's arrival in the Colony.

The security at O'Connell Street was not considered adequate and in May 1827 the Treasury was directed to move to a building within the Barrack Walls at Barrack Square where the security arrangements were considered more adequate for safeguarding the Civil and Military money of the Government.

Over the following decades the Colonial Treasury was relocated on a number of occasions for reasons of either security or financial expediency. The Department remained, however, close to the Governor's domain, the precincts of Parliament House, the Colonial Secretary and later the Premier.

In  1840  the Colonial Treasury together with the Auditor General's Office occupied the dilapidated residence of an earlier Colonial Secretary Mr Alexander McLeay The building occupied land that stood between the sites of the future Lands and Education Departments and soon to be demolished to make way for the dedication of Loftus Street.

The new Colonial Treasury building in Macquarie Street, commenced in 1849, was the first purpose-built government office in Sydney. This elegant sandstone building with slate roof was designed by the Colonial Architect Mortimer William Lewis and was sited on land which had been part of the Governor's Domain, his vineyard.

The Treasury building opened for the transaction of business on the 17 October 1851 having been completed by Edmund Blacket and was shared with the Audit Office. The Treasury entrance was on Macquarie Street, the Audit Office entered from Bridge Street.

Over the following decades various temporary structures were added to the north elevations of the building in response to the economic growth of the colony and increasing commercial activity.

In 1873, the Treasury Department occupied the Audit Office premises, making several doorways in the party wall. At this time the small portico on Macquarie Street was added.

Because of a number of public complaints arising from the crowded conditions of the Treasury building official inquiries were held in 1888 and 1896. The Commissioners in 1888 considered that a new Treasury building was urgently required but no action was taken. A second Report relating to proposed additions to the Treasury Building was considered in 1896 including plans for a new wing north down Macquarie Street housing a vault which would provide security against fire for valuable documents, a matter giving major concern. The plans considered by the Commissioners were extensive, incorporating a new wing and a strong room to be built to the north with accommodation provided in a 'bridge' or link building joining the old with the new wing.

Walter Liberty Vernon's substantial extensions had been commenced in 1895 and completed between July 1900 and June 1901. These extensions incorporated new public spaces at the Macquarie Street level and the Treasurer's suite on the upper floor level, a suite of rooms that in a short time would be occupied by the Premier and his staff.

Between 1916 and 1919 a further wing was added to the Treasury Building in Bridge Street in response to the creation and enlargement of the Premier's Department. This wing was only part of a grand scheme of George MacCrae, Government Architect, involving the creation of an arcaded cortile in an Edwardian Grand Manner style, involving the demolition of the original building and parts of the Macquarie Street extensions. These plans were not pursued, the western end of MacCrae's extension was left sheeted in corrugated iron, and the southern arcade left incomplete. The Treasury and Premier's Departments occupied the building in this rough form until 1967 when both departments moved to the State Office Block with a frontage to Macquarie, Phillip and Bent Streets Sydney.

In July 1959 the Department of Public Works had again requested permission to invite tenders immediately for the commencement of a new Treasury building urgently required to relieve congestion in the Department's accommodation. The request was again denied. On the 13 December 1960 Treasury's Assistant Under Secretary Ted Walder was directed to assist in the planning of a new Government Office Block. The State Office Block, or the Black Stump as it was to be affectionately called was to rise from the aborted planning for a new Treasury wing in the old Treasury building. The old Treasury Building, 117-119 Macquarie Street, Sydney now forms part of the Inter-Continental Hotel. Heritage architects have described the building as having 'fine Georgian elevations of exceptional scale, proportion and detailing' contributing 'greatly to the sandstone townscape aesthetic of the Government precinct as well as being an excellent example of the craft work of its period'.

Treasurers and Premiers 1856-1999

The office of Premier was instituted in 1856. Between that year and 1880 the Premier was located generally in Bridge Street dose to Government House in Macquarie Street and the Treasurer who was located in the Treasury Building 117 Macquarie Street, also opposite Government House.

The first Colonial Treasurer under Responsible Government instituted in 1856 was Thomas Holt in the Donaldson Ministry. It is believed that Mr Holt, as Colonial Treasurer, occupied a room in the south east corner of the Colonial Treasury building overlooking the Botanic Gardens and Bridge Street.

Construction for a building to house the Premier and Colonial Secretary was commenced in 1873 after plans were drawn up by the Colonial Architect James Barnet. The building in the Italian Renaissance style was completed in 1880. Between 1880 and 1899 the Premier was located in this handsome building.

This new Colonial Secretary's building was located east of Macquarie Place on the corner opposite to the Treasury building, on the southern corner of Macquarie and Bridge Streets looking across to the Governor's stables and Botanic Gardens. Sir Henry Parkes in office in 1880 would have been the first Premier to occupy the Colonial Secretary's building.

It is possible that Premier and Treasurer, Sir George Reid occupied the Treasurer's Rooms in the Treasury building between August 1894 and July 1899 but tradition holds that the first Premier (or Prime Minister as sometime titled) and Colonial Treasurer to occupy the Treasurer's Room in the Treasury building was Sir William Lyne from September 1899 to March 1901. The first floor room on Bridge Street adjacent to the Treasurer's room was occupied by the Under Secretary of the Treasury, later to be occupied by the Under Secretary, Premier's Department.

Sir John See was Premier and Colonial Secretary from March 1901 to June 1904 but he occupied a room in the Colonial Secretary's building, leaving the Colonial Treasurer, Thomas Waddell to occupy the Treasurer's room in the Treasury building.

Thomas Waddell became Premier and Colonial Treasurer in 1904 and succeeding Premiers occupied the Treasury room now to be identified as the Premier's Room. Between 1908 and 1910 the Premier's Department occupied a portion of the Treasury building in the northern corner of Macquarie and Bridge Streets. It was not, however, a large establishment, consisting of the Under Secretary, a Chief Clerk and a few other assistants.

With the relocation of the Premier and Treasurer to the Treasury building frequent staff exchanges took place between the Premier's Department and the Colonial Treasury. Edward Burns Harkness a Treasury officer was appointed as Special Assistant to the Premier and Permanent Head. In 1908 Clifford Henderson Hay was seconded to the Premier's Department from the Treasury to become a member of the Premier's staff. Over the following years there was the frequent secondment and transfer of exceptional officers between the Premier's Department and the Treasury and the Treasury and the Audit Office.

Farrer Place

In the mid twentieth century the Hotel Metropole was advertised as the largest and most modern Hotel in Australia occupying an area on the corner of Bent and Phillip Streets Sydney. The hotel gave way to indifferent office buildings before the Tower complex in Farrer Place was completed.

The New South Wales Treasury and the Premier's Department moved from the State Office Block to offices in the newly constructed State Superannuation Building, Governor Macquarie Tower, Farrer Place in 1995.

The Tower complex was constructed on the site of the first Government House and diagonally opposite to number I O'Connell Street, where the first Treasury had been opened nearly one hundred and seventy five years before.

The administrative structure and arrangement, the responsibilities and duties of the Premier's Department has changed with incoming Governments, reflecting the particular priorities, interests and initiatives of the incumbent Premier.

There has been established, however, a defining symbiosis been the Premier's administrative wing and the Department of Financial Management, the New South Wales Treasury, a relationship that would be difficult to disengage for political, practical and pragmatic reasons.