The Registrar General's Building, which hosts today's Land Titles Office of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n state of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

building located in the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

. The building is currently used by the Land and Property Information division of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation, part of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999. The building is located near the junction of

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

and Macquarie street and is set in an historical setting on the eastern fringe of the central business district alongside St Mary's Cathedral, Queen's Square, St James' Church, the

Sydney Mint The Sydney Mint in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is the oldest surviving public building in the Sydney central business district. Built between 1811 and 1816 as the southern wing of the Sydney Hospital, it was then known as the ''Rum Hospi ...

, the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

ed Hyde Park Barracks, and Hyde Park.

History

The major part of the building is designed by Government Architect

Walter Liberty Vernon Colonel (Australia), Colonel Walter Liberty Vernon (11 August 184617 January 1914) was an English people, English architect who migrated to Australia and pursued his career as an architect in Sydney, New South Wales. In his role as the New Sou ...

and completed . The building contractors and stonework contractors were Loveridge and Hudson.DLWC, S170 Register. Designed by Vernon in 1908, the building was constructed in stages from 1909 to 1913 to house the Registrar-General's Department, replacing the 1860 Registrar General's Office in Elizabeth Street. The building was used as the central recording point of births, deaths and marriages in the state and the storage of

title deeds A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...

for the vast majority of the twentieth century.

Description

A three-storey Neo-Gothic

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

-faced office building with attic storey and basement, of steel-framed construction with reinforced concrete floor and slate covered steel framed roof. The facades contain some elaborate gothic detailing to windows and good carving work to

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s and over entrances. The three large gables facing Prince Albert Road are flanked by castellated corner

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s, whilst the facade to Queen's Square has a similar small

flanked by two turrets on each side. The initials CH (Colin Hudson, stonemason), are carved into one of the string course bosses at about second-floor level on the western side return wall of the main entrance facing St. Mary's. Nearby on a small octagonal turret are the initials of his father HCH (Herbert Charles Hudson). On the eastern side of the main entrance on the east and west elevations, with initials of the architects and clerks of works. On the keystone of the arch over the main entrance are the entwined numbers 1912.

Modifications and dates

Originally U-shaped, the north side was closed off by an addition in 1953 and further extended in the 1960s.

Heritage listing

As at 6 December 2000, a well scaled civic building sensitively detailed to complement the adjoining older buildings such as St. Mary's Cathedral. Its carefully composed sandstone facade contributes to the streetscape and satisfactorily terminates the northern end of College Street. It provides a sympathetic component in the progression of civic historical buildings along College Street to Queen's Square. The building has long association with the registration of birth, death and marriages, as well as trade marks, bills of sale, business agents etc. The building stores valuable old registers and other land title documents. Registrar-General's building was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

History

Description

Modifications and dates

Heritage listing

See also

References

Bibliography

Attribution

Further reading