Government House (Adelaide)

The Government House ( literally translated as government buildings ) in Adelaide is the official residence and the official residence of the Governor of South Australia.

As Lieutenant Colonel George Gawler his predecessor John Hindmarsh 1838 replaced as Governor of South Australia, he rejected plans to build a permanent wooden house and gave instructions a house of solid masonry to build. This should, if possible, £ 4,000, but not more than £ 5,000 costs.

We received a draft of the British architect Edward O'Brien, but this was changed by George Strickland Kingston, assistant to the general surveyor William Light. The offers received Kingston, all were roughly around the £ 7000. After further revisions to the plans to reduce the cost of the contract was finally awarded to the company Messrs East and Breeze.

First, the east wing of the present building was built and completed in May 1840. The Government House is the second oldest continuously inhabited house of the state after a small cottage in Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide, which was first occupied in mid- 1839. Upon completion, the building contained today's large living room, a small dining room and upstairs three bedrooms, a dressing room and two rooms for the operator Tenenbaum. Gradually, a large dining room for a business lunch, a large dressing room, a library and an office for the governor added.

After Governor Gawler was appointed in 1841 after the UK, partly because of its extravagant building projects, put his successor George Edward Grey and Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Holt Robe to lower expenditure for the Government House.

The incumbent governors, their families and their guests live in all rooms in the upper floor.

Formerly known summer residences were used by the governors and their families in the Adelaide Hills. The Old Government House is situated in the Belair National Park. This was in 1880 replaced by Marble Hill near Norton Summit, until it was destroyed by a bushfire in 1955.

Among the official guests who regularly visit the Government House in Adelaide, there are numerous representatives of the British Crown. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II visited the Government House seven times (most recently 2002).