The architecture of scientific Sydney

Abstract

The Architecture of Scientific Sydney* JOAN KERRA special building for pure science in Sydney certainly preceded any building for the arts -or even for religious worship -if we allow that Lieutenant William Dawes' observatory erected in 1788, was a 1 As might be expected, being erected in the first special bualding and that its purpose was pure science. year of European settlement it was not a particularly impressive edifice. It was made of wood and canvas and consisted of an octagonal quadrant room with a white conical canvas revolving roof nailed to poles containing a shutter for Dawes' telescope. The adjacent wooden building, which served as accommodation for Dawes when he stayed there overnight to make evening observations, was used to store the rest of the instruments. It also had a shutter in the roof. A tent-observatory was a common portable building for eighteenth century scientific travellers; indeed, the English portable observatory Dawes was known to have used at Rio on the First Fleet voyage that brought him to Sydney was probably cannibalised for this DLIMLeLVe plomeer Structure.