Sydney Heritage

This is the Lands Department Building, one of my favourite old Sydney sandstone buildings. It was designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet, and was built in two stages. The first stage was between 1876-81, the second stage was between 1888-91. The large domed structures on the roof are now conference rooms. I was lucky enough to work in this building for several years and on more than one occasion I found myself watching the boats on the harbour and drifting away then realising that I had no idea what had been said for the last five minutes. Sadly, at the current time, the Department of Lands is no longer resident in this building.

Sydney once had many more of these beautiful old buildings, however many were lost to developers in the 1960s and early 1970s before the Builders Labourers Federation saved those remaining by imposing green bans. Over the next couple of days I'll highlight some of the features that make this building so special.