33 ST ANDREWS PLACE
As the first stage of Parliament was being completed in November 1856, ground was broken for the first building to be constructed on the nearby Treasury Reserve, the offices of the Government Printer. It was designed by J.J. Clark, a talented eighteen year old Public Works Department draftsman, who went on to design some of Australia's most celebrated government buildings including the Renaissance Revival Treasury Building, the Royal Mint and the Customs House.
Clark's original building is now to the rear of the 'New Government Printing Office' designed by J.H. Marsden and G.B.H Austin of the Public Works Department in the late 1880s.
After Federation the Office was responsible for printing both State and Commonwealth publications until separate printing offices were established. In 1911 the King's Warehouse (now known as the Queen's Warehouse), a former Customs Bond Store, was established as a printing works for printing Commonwealth stamps and notes. The Commonwealth Government Printing Office was not set up until the Federal Government removed to Canberra in 1927.
|
| An early image of the Government Printing offices, from the rear of Parliament House. |