Across Spring Street from the Old Treasury Building on the South corner of Collins Street, stands the former townhouse of pastoralist and politician William Campbell. Designed in 1871 by architect Leonard Terry, the dignified classical facade is a reminder of the vanished nineteenth century streetscape of Italianate terraces and townhouses that once graced Spring and Collins Streets. Remnants of that scale and character have survived in Collins Street; Portland House at 8-10 Collins Street and Terry's Renaissance Revival Melbourne Club at 36-50 Collins Street are examples.
Leased to the Commonwealth Government throughout its Melbourne residency, 61 Spring Street was the premier administrative accommodation during the years immediately following Federation. Situated within an easy distance of Parliament House and the Treasury Reserve, it was the first office of the Prime Minister and provided offices for the departments of External Affairs, Home Affairs and the Attorney General. Home Affairs removed to Russell Street in 1905 and when the Commonwealth Offices at 4 Treasury Place were completed in 1912, the offices of the Prime Minister and the Attorney General were relocated to the new building.
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| Offices of the Prime Minister, 61 Spring St. Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria |
The Department of External Affairs remained at 61 Spring Street until 1916 and the War Cabinet met there during the First World War.
The Home and Territories department inherited the address from External Affairs in 1916 and remained there until 1928. Following the removal of the Commonwealth Government to Canberra, 61 Spring Street was utilised for State Government offices. The main house now forms part of the office development, No. 1 Collins Street, designed by Denton Corker Marshall, architects of the new Museum of Victoria, in association with Robert Peck. The Spring Street servants' wing, which had housed both Commonwealth and State Government public servants when it had relinquished the domestic kind, was demolished.
During the first few years of Commonwealth Government, private properties were leased for departmental offices as accommodation was required. 61 Spring Street was the foundation administrative building, but an expanding Commonwealth bureaucracy soon spread the public service through several neighbouring townhouses and terraces, around the corner into Flinders Lane and throughout the city, far from Spring Street.
The former sites of the Post-Master General's Office, the Quarantine Service, later the Commonwealth Health Department, the Navigation Service lie between 61 Spring Street and Flinders Lane, where the Trade and Customs Department complex occupied the south east corner and south side to Throssel Lane.
The Trade and Customs Department reflected the temporary and ad hoc nature of the early accommodation arrangements. First situated at the Customs House in Flinders Street, it moved to 61 Spring Street by 1905 and then 23 Spring Street by 1910, before taking up residence at 31 Spring Street by 1915. Here the Department's offices consisted of a group of one, two and three storey buildings clustered around a maze of small yards stretching down Flinders Lane to Throssell Lane. The Department remained at this address until it moved to Canberra in 1927.