Government House was designed by William Wardell, Inspector-General of the Victorian Public Works Department, and constructed between 1871-76. He was assisted by PWD architects JJ Clark and Peter Kerr, who had both designed distinguished public buildings, including the Treasury Building and Parliament House, respectively. The scheme for Government House was inspired by Queen Victoria's Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, a suitable model for the vice-regal residence.
While Melbourne served as the nation's capital, the elegant Italianate mansion was home to the federal governor-general. Victoria's governor was accommodated at Stonnington, in Malvern, during this period - a residence chosen as much for its grandeur as for its gatehouse. Few of the other Melbourne mansions considered for the role boasted such an essential of gubernatorial life.
Government House was also the temporary residence for visiting royalty. The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York stayed there during their visit to Melbourne for the opening of federal parliament. The lawns Government House were the venue for many displays performed for the future King George V and Queen Mary. One such event, an exhibition of rough riding and whip cracking by 200 stockmen, was enlivened by the occasional bid for freedom by a "wild-eyed warrigal" in the direction of the spectators. No accidents occurred however, "the riders sat their steeds like centaurs and the reputation of Australian horsemanship was splendidly upheld."
The interior apartments of Government House are splendidly detailed and lavishly decorated, grand spaces. The State Ballroom comprises the entire south wing. The ceiling, soaring above a double-height space, is elaborately stencilled and gilded. The State Dining and Drawing rooms are equally impressive- the dining table seats 42 people. These rooms, and other spaces in the complex, took on a very different complexion during the First World War.
Lady Helen Munro-Ferguson, the wife of the then Governor-General, the Rt Hon Sir Ronald Craufurd Munro-Ferguson, was the patroness and head of the Australian Red Cross. During the First World War, federal Government House became not only the administrative centre of the society, but also the central depot for Red Cross stores in Melbourne.
All the state rooms were commandeered for the storage of books, linen, bolts of cloth and other wartime essentials. This turn of events prompted the Hall porter to remark that, "what with the Red Cross meetings always being held in the state drawing room and the state ballroom turned into a warehouse, and the state dining room piled up with flannel and the Red Cross secretary provided with quarters in the tower, he supposed that the Governor General and Her Excellency would soon have to camp on the lawn."
Government House tower, however, is the only feature of the building most Melburnians have ever seen outside of photographs. The elegant, white 145ft tower, a Melbourne landmark, rises high above the trees of the King's Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Before Melbourne's offices and skyscrapers obscured the view, it was visible even from the roof of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology's two storey terrace on Victoria Street. During the first few decades of the Bureau's operation, the tower's flagstaff was used to orient theodolites for the launching of pilot weather balloons.