NSW Parliament

The oldest public building in Australia stands here, recognizable by the slender, two-story veranda of cast iron that runs along its face. This structure began as a wing of the Rum Hospital in eighteen sixteen, built by convicts using a portion of the colony's rum trade profits to pay for construction. Governor Lachlan Macquarie commissioned it to ease the desperate shortage of medical care for the local population. Today, it houses the Parliament of New South Wales, where members debate the laws of the state.