Old Government House, Sydney

Surrounded by 260 acres of parkland, the Old Government House commands sweeping views of the Parramatta River and is an undisturbed natural reserve amid Australia’s biggest metropolitan area.

The house itself was built in 1799 and is Australia’s oldest public building. For seventy years, it served as the governor’s rural residence. The colony's first 10 governors resided here.

Governor Macquarie and his wife, who lived here from 1810 to 1821, are responsible for the majority of extensions and renovations made to the property, turning the originally small and rather simple structure into a Palladian-style English mansion.

Recently restored, the building's interior features typical Anglo- and Indian-style furnishing, sandstone flags, and a large hand-cut glass chandelier once common in fashionable houses during the 1820s.

The property occupies Darug land that was home to the Burramatta Tribe. Some of the trees surrounding the house still bear scars of the bark stripped to make canoes by the Aborigines. The Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales managing the Old Government House operates tours including a “haunted house” tour of the property.