COMMISSARIAT STORE 1825

STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

The 4-storey Commissariat was built in 1825. This was the second ‘Government Store’ on the Queens Wharf. Until the construction of the neighbouring textile mill in the late 1840s, slightly closer to the river, this was the most dominating structure on the Parramatta skyline.

A roadway clearly shown in Augustus Earle’s drawing of 1827, led behind the Commissariat, running directly into the Macarthur estate. Its possible a small gatehouse was situated here, at the eastern end of a long timber paling fence. During the 1820s several other buildings were located around the commissariat, including a storekeeper’s cottage, boatsheds and a small tavern, later known as the Emu Inn, only demolished in the early 20th century.

Recommissioned and fitted with dormitories, mess halls and parade areas, the building served as a Military Barracks from 1828 to 1848 and briefly operating into the early 1850s as a dormitory, depot and clearing house for immigrants. In 1862, the old commissariat building was again ‘re-purposed’ for use as an asylum for old and destitute men - mirroring, exactly, uses made of the Hyde Park Barracks.

During its operation as a military barracks, a long triangular compound was created running back towards Parramatta, enclosed in a brick wall. At the extreme western point was an entry gate, guarded by a gatehouse.

In later years, around the early 1880s, an overhead passageway connected the building to the Byrnes Brothers Mill on the riverbank, after it was absorbed into the asylum complex.

After 1883, a tramway ran between the two buildings, parallel with the river.

Both buildings were demolished in 1937, when the inmates were moved to Lidcombe.

In 1946, the newly established Housing Commission resumed the land for flats and ‘commission’ housing, making this one of the first government housing scheme projects in New South Wales.