NSW Parliament

The New South Wales Parliament building is distinguished by a two-story Georgian façade featuring a colonnaded front that faces Macquarie Street. This structure is the oldest public building still standing in the city of Sydney. Its survival is tied to a colonial-era compromise involving Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who arrived in eighteen ten to find the colony lacked a permanent hospital. When the British government refused to provide the necessary finances, Macquarie struck a deal with a consortium of businessmen. He granted them a monopoly on the importation of sixty thousand gallons of rum in exchange for the construction of the building.