Place:

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Date:

1876

Historical Information:

This image is part of the Colonial Office photographic collection held at The National Archives UK.

The Treasury stood at the centre of South Australia’s administrative and governmental affairs for more 130 years. The former Treasury Building was built in stages from 1839 to 1907. The buildings we see today took nearly twenty years to reach completion, though their unity of conception suggests that they were designed as a whole by E. A. Hamilton who was Colonial Architect at the time when it was begun and who supervised the erection of the three earliest sections. The northern two-storied section of the Treasury Building in King William Street was built in 1858, followed by the corner two-storied section in 1859, and the central three-storied King William Street section in 1860. In 1867 the two-storied eastern Victoria Square section was completed. Finally in 1876 the three-storied Victoria Square block completed the structure. In order to make that possible a one-storied office building erected about 1842 to the design of Sir George Kingston, architect, was demolished. No doubt the design of that now forgotten Kingston building to some extent affected the general design, although this stuccoed pile with its urn-capped parapets is reminiscent of Nash’s terraces in Regent’s Park, London. [adelaideheritage.net.au]

Description:

Showing Government Offices (Treasury), Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 1876. Original photo published 1876.

From the collection of:

The National Archives UK Flickr