| Historical notes: | The "Eora people" was the name given to the coastal Aborigines around Sydney. Central Sydney is therefore often referred to as "Eora Country". Within the City of Sydney local government area, the traditional owners are the Cadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora. There is no written record of the name of the language spoken and currently there are debates as whether the coastal peoples spoke a separate language "Eora" or whether this was actually a dialect of the Dharug language. Remnant bushland in places like Blackwattle Bay retain elements of traditional plant, bird and animal life, including fish and rock oysters.
With the invasion of the Sydney region, the Cadigal and Wangal people were decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today. All cities include many immigrants in their population. Aboriginal people from across the state have been attracted to suburbs such as Pyrmont, Balmain, Rozelle, Glebe and Redfern since the 1930s. Changes in government legislation in the 1960s provided freedom of movement enabling more Aboriginal people to choose to live in Sydney.
(Information sourced from Anita Heiss, "Aboriginal People and Place", Barani: Indigenous History of Sydney City http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/barani )
In 1817 Governor Macquarie resumed the site occupied by a bakehouse and mill. These buildings were considered inappropriate given the close proximity to first Government House at the corner of Phillip and Bridge Streets. He instructed Francis Greenway to prepare plans for a "Court of Offices and Stables" and a castellated house for the residence of the Governor. The foundation stone was laid by Governor Macquarie in December 1817, but he did not inform the British Government of the project for two years and the structure did not begin to rise until early 1819.
The scale and magnificence of the building which was intended to provide accommodation for horses and servants, caused controversy. Strong opposition was met from Commissioner Bigge sent out from London in 1819 to investigate the colony's affairs. Progress on the stables was therefore prohibited, and due to convict labour shortages the building was not completed until 1821.
The picturesque exterior featured crenellated parapets, lancet windows with tracery, pointed arched carriageways and octagonal towers. The walls of the stables were one room deep and enclosed a large quadrangle which contained a fountain. The inner walls of the quadrangle did not carry the Gothic theme but displayed Greenway's neo-classical style based on Georgian principles.
The building was the most prominent feature of the gardens and harbour until 1837 when the second Government House was constructed in the same style. The stables remained virtually as built until 1910 when the increasing use of the motor car and change of Government made the building redundant.
In 1912 the Government declared that the building be used as a museum. The Minister for Public Instruction intervened and proposed to establish an Academy of Fine Arts. This was later abandoned in favour of a specialist Conservatorium of Music. The new auditorium and school was officially opened in 1915. Several additions were made since.
"Following a major Review of the Conservatorium by The University of Sydney in 1994, significant structural changes were implemented. Amongst the numerous recommendations of the Review handed to the incoming Principal and Dean for implementation was "That negotiations with the NSW State Government about permanent suitable accommodation for the Conservatorium be pursued as a matter or urgency". This was no mean challenge, given the thirty year history of discussion, complaints and procrastination with respect to the increasingly appalling accommodation arrangements. But on the election of the Carr Government in early 1995, discussions began in earnest to solve the problem once and for all.
As in 1916, a wide range of sites were considered, many of them controversial. In May 1997, 180 years after Governor Lachlan Macquarie laid the foundation stone for the Greenway Building, the Premier of NSW, Hon Bob Carr MP announced one of the most significant initiatives in the Conservatorium's history, a major upgrade of the Conservatorium at its present site with the ultimate goal of creating a music education facility equal to or better than anything in the world. A team was assembled to work to that brief, resulting in a complex collaboration between various government departments (notably the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Public Works and Services), the Government Architect, US-based acoustic consultants Kirkegaard Associates, Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke Architects, the key users represented by the Principal and Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the Principal of the Conservatorium High School, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and many others.
The building process necessitated the relocation of the Conservatorium's performance activities and the Conservatorium High School to the Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh for the period of redevelopment from 1998 to mid-2001. With the Conservatorium's Composition, Music Education and Musicology Units housed in an office building in Pitt St, the challenges (which had existed since the 1970s) of a split campus connected only by an umbilical railway line from Redfern to Wynyard became acute.
By the time of the relocation, the historic Greenway building, Governor Macquarie's stables, had housed music students for longer than it had housed horses. Nevertheless heritage was a sensitive issue. The redevelopment has restored Greenway's historic castellated building, removing newer additions to discreetly complement, enhance and enlarge the public green space of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
For the city of Sydney it makes a major step towards the completion of the vision first enunciated by the then Conservatorium Director Eugene Goossens in 1947 when he lobbied Joe Cahill (Minister for Local Government, later Premier) for an Opera House on Bennelong Point to create a music precinct in the lower end of Macquarie Street.
For the Conservatorium, it provides facilities of outstanding acoustic and architectural quality in which to serve the music and wider communities, and to educate future generations of performers, musicologists, composers and music educators."
(From www.music.usyd.edu.au/about/history) |