11 Historic Sydney Buildings You Can Go Inside
Plenty of Sydney’s old buildings look good from the footpath, but the ones on this list let you through the front door. Some are museums, some are grand houses frozen in time, and one is a working farm from the 1830s.
Most are free to enter, and a few are run by Museums of History NSW, so you can string two or three together in a day without spending much at all. The catch is that opening days vary a lot. Some are open daily, others only a couple of days a week, so check the details under each entry before you set off.
If you’d rather admire Sydney’s buildings from the outside, my guide to Sydney architecture by era covers the city’s best facades from convict sandstone to Barangaroo.
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Important Colonial Buildings in Sydney
Sydney is Australia’s oldest established city, being founded by the First Fleet in 1788, so it should come as no surprise that Sydney has some of the most important historical buildings in Australia. If you’re a traveller of a historic bent, keen to see the sights, here are a few of the oldest buildings in Sydney you simply cannot miss.
Several of these famous Sydney buildings are part of the Museums of History. This organisation also includes some of Sydney’s most beautiful historic houses.
Hyde Park Barracks
Ask a Sydneysider to name a historic building and Hyde Park Barracks usually comes up first. Convict architect Francis Greenway designed it to house his fellow convicts, and it opened in 1819.
Over two centuries it has been an asylum, a hospital, a mint and a courthouse. Today it’s a museum, and the audio experience added in the renovation walks you through the convict story room by room. Give yourself at least 90 minutes.
The Barracks reopened after a major renovation with a new immersive audio experience that walks you through the convict story. Give yourself at least 90 minutes to do it justice.
Address: Queens Square, Macquarie St, Sydney
Hours: Daily, 10am to 6pm (last entry at 4:30pm). Closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day
Entry fee: Free
Susannah Place
Changing in pace, we come to the Susannah Place Museum. While most of Sydney’s historic buildings have been stately or luxurious, Susannah Place was once home to Sydney’s less prosperous residents.
Sitting in the historic Rocks district on Sydney Harbour, Susannah Place was a row of terraces built in 1844 by Irish immigrants and occupied by an array of working-class Sydneysiders right until its conversion to a museum in the 1990s.
An example of a way of life now gone from the inner city, Susannah Place survived the slum clearances and waves of gentrification physically intact. Today’s visitors can now walk through the preserved and restored rooms that show Australian working-class life throughout the decades.
Susannah Place is worth a stop if you’re curious about how people in Sydney actually lived back then.
Address: 58–64 Gloucester Street, The Rocks
Hours: Thursday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Entry remains by guided tour only,
Cost: Book on the official site – Tours from $10 kids, $16 concession, $20 adults
Justice and Police Museum
Once a working station for Sydney’s Water Police, this imposing building now serves as a museum for all things law and order. Finished in 1886, what is now the Justice and Police Museum has had a long history of state service, passing through various branches of the police and acting for a time as a courthouse.
Featuring an extensive collection of artifacts including mugshots, forensic equipment and antique firearms, the Museum offers visitors a gateway to a harsher past. And to those of us of a more hands-on bent, the Museum features a restored courtroom, charge room and cells, where visitors can be walked through the hard and often brutal experience of running afoul of the law in the old days.
Address: Cnr Phillip St &, Albert St, Sydney
Hours: Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm, daily during NSW school holidays.
Entry fee: Free entry for all visitors
Cadman’s Cottage
This little cottage is the second oldest building in Sydney and steeped in maritime history. When it was built, high tide lapped just two metres from the door. Today situated in the middle of Sydney’s historic Rocks district, it’s more than a hundred metres away.
Address: 110 George St, The Rocks
Open: Exterior viewable any time, interior closed except for occasional events
Government House
Government House has been home to the Governor of NSW since 1845. It still is, but the house and gardens are open to the public, which surprises a lot of people.
The free guided tours take you through the Gothic Revival rooms, full of period furniture and portraits of past governors. Tours run Friday to Sunday between 10.30am and 3pm, leaving every half hour
The house closes for official functions fairly often, so call (02) 9228 4111 before you visit to check it’s open that day if you don’t have a booking.
Where: Macquarie St, Sydney (inside the Botanic Gardens)
Hours: The Gardens are open daily from 10am to 4pm.
More details: Check their website for notice of special events that change the access hours.
Entry fee: Free entry and free tours. Bring photo ID because you need to show it at the gatehouse to register.
Elizabeth Bay House
Elizabeth Bay House was called “the finest house in the colony” when it was finished in 1839, and it’s easy to see why once you’re inside. Colonial secretary Alexander Macleay built it in the Greek Revival style, and the project nearly bankrupted his family.
The house had fallen apart by the mid-1900s, and restoring it became one of Australia’s first heritage restoration projects. The saloon with its domed ceiling and winding staircase is the highlight, and my tip is to take a minute at the upstairs windows for the harbour view that explains why Macleay picked this spot.
Address: 7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay,
Hours: Sunday and Monday from 10am to 4pm.
More: Visit the Elizabeth Bay House official site for more details on the building’s history.
Entry fee: Free entry for all visitors
If you like exploring historic houses, you might like to visit Vaucluse House in Sydney’s eastern suburbs as well.
Related: Explore the delights of Elizabeth Bay and Potts Point while you are there.
Custom’s House
Opened in 1845, the Victorian Georgian Custom’s House down at Circular Quay was one of the first stops for arrivals in Sydney for many years and on of the important buildings in Australia The officials operating out of Custom’s House were responsible for taking care of imports and exports, controlling immigration (including enforcing the infamous White Australia Policy), and keeping out illegal and illicit content such as drugs and pornography.
This work changed and evolved over Australian history, with Custom’s House bearing witness to it at, until 1990.
The main drawcards these days are:
- The Sydney City Model – a scale model that shows 10 square kilometres of inner Sydney. It’s a great way to get some perspective on what you have already seen and what is waiting to be discovered.
- Sydney City Library – Need to use a computer, or read a newspaper from home? Find a quiet place to work? Located on levels 1 and 2, this is a perfect spot for some time out at Circular Quay.
- Cafe Sydney – this rooftop bar and restaurant offering fine dining with a dress circle view.
Where: 31 Alfred St, Sydney
When: Mon to Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat and Sun 10am to 4pm. The Sydney Visitor Information Centre on the ground floor is open daily 9am to 5pm
Entry fee: Free
Queen Victoria Building
While not colonial, The Queen Victoria Building is one of the most prominent architectural sites in Sydney’s CBD and one too beautiful to leave out. Completed in 1898, it was designed as a marketplace, a purpose that despite some hiatus and extensive restoration, it still serves.
The QVB of today is an upmarket multi-storey shopping centre like many others across the city, except for its Romanesque exterior and interior. These days, it’s among the most famous buildings in Australia.
A key feature of the building is two enmorous clocks hanging from the ceiling. The Royal Clock that is at the Southern end of the building comes to life on the hour and a half-hour between 9 am and 9 pm with a performance of trumpeters and the reveal of 6 scenes from English history. The second clock on the opposite end of the building, The Great Australian Clock, features key times in Australian indigenous and colonial history.
The Queen Victoria Building is a great place to indulge in a few of life’s luxuries or purchase a souvenir for a particularly lucky loved one. Don’t miss Haigh’s chocolate
Where: 455 George St, Sydney
When: Most shops open 9am to 6pm Mon to Sat, 9pm Thursdays, and 11am to 5pm Sundays
More: Details of shops & events held at the QVB can be found on their website.
St Mary’s Cathedral
Let’s end on a spiritual note with one of Australia’s largest (or rather the longest) Catholic cathedrals. Founded as a little chapel in 1821, St Mary’s has been rebuilt and added to over Australia’s history to the point that it’s now considered a minor basilica.
Dubbed the home of Sydney’s Catholic community, St Mary’s is constructed in a breathtaking English Gothic style and its interior is filled with treasures and devotional objects lit up by stained glass windows and completed with a magnificent pipe organ.
When: You’re welcome to look around on your own anytime during opening hours when mass is not being held.. Free guided tours run on Sunday mornings after the 10.30am Mass, usually starting around 11.30am from the back of the cathedral.
Where: St Marys Rd, Sydney
When: Mon-Fri 6:30am – 6.30pm (closed 1pm to 2pm weekdays), Sat 8.30am – 7pm, Sun 6:30am – 7pm.
Entry fee: Free
Elizabeth Farm – Parramatta
This homestead in Rosehill has the honour of being the oldest colonial building standing in Australia. Built in 1793 by the famous John Macarthur as the family’s fortunes rose and they became more comfortable, Elizabeth Farm evolved from a farmer’s cottage to the colonial-era bungalow you see today.
Marketed as a living museum, visitors to Elizabeth Farm can be guided into the very rooms used to plot the coup against Governor Bligh, and take tea where John’s wife, the force that was Elizabeth Macarthur, once sat.
Where: 70 Alice Street, Rosehill
When: Fri – Sat, 10am-4pm. Daily in school holdiays. Closed Good Friday and Christmas Day
More: Details of tours on their website. I Cost: Free
The Rouse Hill Estate
The Rouse Hill Estate is a property that is laden with history. Built by early colonist and public servant Richard Rouse in 1819, the house at Rouse Hill and its sprawling grounds includes not only this Georgian mansion but the site of the failed 1804 convict uprising at Vinegar Hill.
Since then, six generations have lived on the property before they converted it into a museum in the 1990s and the interior of the house preserves a hodgepodge of decor that runs across two centuries. Take a guided tour through this part of Australian history on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Where: 356 Annangrove Road, Rouse Hill
When: Open Sundays 10am–4pm. Closed Christmas Day.
More: Details of tours on their website.
Entry fee: Free
Sydney Open
If you want to see inside buildings that are normally closed to the public, put Sydney Open in your diary. It’s usually held on the first weekend in November and gives you access to dozens of buildings across the city, from grand heritage interiors to modern towers.
Tickets go on sale a few months out and the most sought-after buildings book out fast, so don’t leave it until the week before. Check the Museums of History NSW website for this year’s dates and program.
Famous Sydney Buildings Walking Map
Using our map you can discover these Sydney historical sites in order for an easy walk or check them out when your travels bring you nearby.
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I’m a huge history nut, so this post is perfect for me! That clock is quite something and it’s crazy that Cadman’s Cottage was at one time so close to the water and so far away now! Saving for when I go as touring the historic places is something I’d really enjoy.