'I'llK AISTKAIJAN MISEUM:— 

 KUAIIMKNTS OK ITS KAKl.V IIIS'I'OKV. 



HY 



K. KriiKKii'iiK, Jim;., I )iTi'ct(ir and ('iii'atoi'. 

 ( IMiitcs xlv.-xlix.) 



In llu' til si pint of flirsc " Kragiiieiits " were detailed tlie Inception, 

 Title, and Nanu's of ) lu' Kailiest Cniatuivs. lu the iii-eseut part will be 

 found irlatt'd t lii' wandi'iing's to and fro of the Collections from the first 

 record I li;»\f to tlu'ir airival at their ])resent lionie in C/olk'jSfe Street in 



O. WANDKIvlNMiS OF TllK Ixh'ANT CoM-ECTIONS. 



It will be i-emenibered I traced back the Museiun's history' to 

 practically 1827 as the " Colonial Museum." One may safely assume 

 this was the " beautiful collection in chai-ge of Mr. W. Holmes" possibly 

 iu the Judge Advocate's Old Office judging bv au aiticle in the " Sydney 

 Gazette " of 18302 ,_ ' " 



" The Sydney Museum [another early name for the institution], kept for the 

 present in the old Judge Advocate's Office, has just received from the 

 out-stations some valuable additions to its stock of curiosities." 



This is the first direct reference, other than .those already detailed, 

 I have met with. What the relation of the foregoing office to the next 

 location, the " Old Post Office," referred to in the " Sydney Gazette " of 

 1830'^, was 1 am not certain. But first which of the Old Post Offices is 

 here refei'red to? That in George Street (then called High Street) about 

 the site of the present Metropolitan Fire Brigade building at Circular 

 Quay ; or the second on the King's Wharf, opposite the Paragon Hotel, 

 Circular Quay''; or the third in Bent Street'', at the rear of the present 

 Education Department building? In all probability the last named, for in 

 " The New South Wales Caleiular .and General P.O. Directory " for 

 ISS'i*^, there occurs in a list of [)ublic offices and buildings amongst other 

 items : — " Museum, Bent Sti-eet," but in 1833 edition of the same pub- 

 lication, tliis is not repeated. Mr. Hugh Wright, of the Mitchell Librar)% 

 informs me the Judge Advocate's Old Office " was in what is now Loftus 



1 Continued from "Records," Vol. xi.. No. 4, 1916, p. 67. 



-' Sydney Gazette, xxviii., 183U (6tli Feby.), No. 1772. 



■' Sydney Gazette, xxviii., 1830 (31st Aug.) 



J Houison—" History of the G. P.O., etc., in N.S.W., 1890," pp. 3, 7 (fide 

 H. Wright). 



■'' Bent Street— up to 1810 was without a name. In the " Sydney Gazette " of 

 1810 (viii., 1810 (Oct, 6th), No. 353) is a "Plan of the New and Old Names of 

 Streets, etc., in the Town of Sydney, with Explanations and References." The New 

 Street under the name of Bent Street is described as " extending from Spring-row 

 in an easterly direction to the fountain, and thence to the north end of Phillip- 

 street." 



« N.S.Wales Calendar and G.P.O. Directory, 1832, p. 26. 



