Old Government House, South Australia
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South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
is a historic building located in Belair National Park
Belair National Park
Belair National Park is a national park in South Australia , 13 km south of Adelaide, covering an 835ha area. It was proclaimed in 1891 and was the first National Park in South Australia, second in Australia and the tenth in the world...
. It was the summer residence
Summer house
A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places...
of the Governor of South Australia from 1860-1880, and was used by governors Richard Graves MacDonnell
Richard Graves MacDonnell
Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell KCMG CB was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, judge and colonial governor...
(1855-62) and Dominick Daly
Dominick Daly
Sir Dominick Daly was the Governor of Prince Edward Island from 11 July 1854 to 25 May 1859 and later Governor of South Australia from 4 March 1862 until his death on 19 February 1868....
(1862-68). It is now a tourist attraction and is open to the public on Sundays and public holidays.
Old Government House was South Australia’s first official vice-regal summer residence. It was constructed from local sandstone, with the red-brick for the quoins sourced from the Blackwood
Blackwood
-Botany:* African Blackwood , decorative timber tree native to seasonally dry regions of Africa* Australian Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon, native to eastern Australia...
brickworks, and a native timber shingle roof. The residence's indoor plunge-pool was reportedly the first in the colony.
It was superseded by a larger summer residence at Marble Hill
Marble Hill, South Australia
Marble Hill was the Vice-Regal summer residence for the Governor of South Australia from 1880 to 1955. It is also the name of a district of the Adelaide Hills Council, named after the residence and in which the residence is located...
, completed in 1880. It was then used by the curator of the Department of Woods and Forests Nursery (also located in Belair National Park) until it was transferred to the National Parks and Wildlife Reserves in 1961. Minor renovation work was carried out and the building was opened as a museum. More extensive renovations in the 1970s and again in 2002-03 restored the building to its original grandeur.
Old Government House is now cared for by the Friends of Old Government House
Friends of Parks
Friends of Parks Incorporated is an umbrella organisation for 141 individual volunteer community groups and over 7000 individual volunteers in South Australia, who are each affiliated with a specific national park or historic site...