Museum of Sydney
Museum built over the excavated foundations of the colony's first Government House, fronted by a sculptural forest of memorial pillars.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Museum of Sydney opens in the forecourt, where twenty-nine tall wooden pillars form the artwork Edge of the Trees, made in 1995 by Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley. Each pillar is named for one of the twenty-nine Aboriginal clans who lived around Sydney Harbour before 1788, and holds small objects — hair, shells, bone, feathers — as memorials. The guide traces the site's layered history, from the first Government House built in 1788 to the archaeologists who opened the ground in 1983 and found its stone footings intact. Look down at the glass panels in the pavement as you walk inside.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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