AGY-6057 | Sydney International Exhibition Commission

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Background
Plans for an International Exhibition to be held in Sydney were discussed in 1877 by the Agricultural Society of New South Wales and initially supported by the NSW Government without its financial involvement. (1) On 7 February 1878 the Australian International Exhibition was gazetted to be held in Sydney, New South Wales, from 1 August 1879 under the supervision of the Agricultural Society. The programme was announced to include agricultural and non-agricultural divisions. The agricultural division was to have included: horses; cattle; sheep; pigs; poultry; dogs; wood; wine; sugar; farm produce; horticultural produce; manures; implements and machinery; and, silks, fibres and tobacco. The non-agricultural division was to have included: fine arts; apparatus and application of Liberal Arts; furniture and other objects for the use of dwellings; clothing, including fabrics and other objects worn on the person; products of Mining Industry, Forestry, &c.; apparatus and processes used in the Common Arts; food: fresh, preserved, and in various states of preservation; Artizan's Prizes (including all new Inventions); and, Public and Denominational School Prizes. (2) The exhibition was advertised and international exhibitors expressed interest in attending but the Agricultural Society realised its facilities would not be sufficient for an international exhibition and sought financial assistance from the Government. In December 1878 the Government finally agreed to take over the international exhibition from the Agricultural Society and on 22 January 1879 the Government granted an initial £50,000 towards its costs. (3)

Sydney International Exhibition
The Sydney International Exhibition was the first International Exhibition to be held in Australia. It was officially opened on 17 September 1879 and was closed on 20 April 1880. (4)

The Commissioners for the Management and carrying out of an International Exhibition in Sydney were appointed on 31 December 1878, and included the Governor, then Sir Hercules Robinson, as President, with Sir James Martin, Chief Justice, Sir Alfred Stephen MLC, Sir John Hay, President of the Legislative Council and Sir George Wigram Allen, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, as Vice-Presidents. Patrick Alfred Jennings was appointed Executive Commissioner, with George Henry Cox MLC, William Davies MP, Edward Deas-Thomson MLC, Andrew Garran LL.D., Edward Smith Hill, Richard Lewis Jenkins MRCSL, Samuel Aron; Joseph JP, Phillip Gidley King JP, Sir William Macarthur MLC, William Macleay MLC, James Merriman MP, Henry Mort, John Russell, Saul Samuel MLC, John Smith MLC, William Henry Suttor MP, George Thornton MLC, Prosper Nicholas Trebeck, Edmund Webb MP, and John Young appointed as members. (5) Augustus Morris was appointed as Secretary to the Commission for the Sydney International Exhibition on 16 January 1879. (6) Additional Commissioners were appointed on 17 January 1879 as follows: Charles James Roberts, Mayor of Sydney, (in place of Sir E. Deas-Thomson) and Edward Flood (in place of John Young). (7) London Commissioners also appointed on 17 January 1879 were the Right Hon. Somerset Richard, Earl of Belmore PC, KCMG as President, Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., KCMG, as Vice President, William Forster, Agent General for the Colony of New South Wales, John Frazer MLC, Edward Knox, Robert Lowe MP, Edward Abraham Levy, Alexander McArthur MP, Jacob Levi Montefiore, William Anderson Ogg, Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen KCMG, Sir Henry Watson Parker KCMG, Peter Nicol Russell, and Sir Francis Turville KCMG. (8) Further Commissioners appointed on 18 February 1879 were William Adams Broadribb (vice Sir William Macarthur Knight) and John Davies (vice John Russell). (9) Also on 18 February 1879 Roderick William Cameron and Henry Wayland Peabody, of Boston, were appointed as Commissioners to the United States of America. (10)

The Secretary to the Commission, Augustus Morris, was appointed on 16 January 1879. Its Chief Clerk was Alexander Cumming who was appointed in January 1879 and the Commission's Musical Director, Paolo Giorza, was appointed in August 1879. Between June and September 1879 Superintendents were appointed for the Garden Palace, the Machinery Department, the Live Stock Department, the Agricultural Department, the Admission Department and a Chief Clerk for the Ticket Sales Department. There was also a Catalogue Department and an Award Department. (11)

The first meeting of the Commissioners was held in early January 1879, over which Sir John Hay presided. At that meeting the Executive Commissioner "announced that the Government had approved of plans prepared by Mr. James Barnet, the Colonial Architect, for the main building, which was to comprise floor space equal to about eight and a half acres." (12) The site chosen for the exhibition was an area known as the Inner Domain. (13) The main exhibition building to be constructed for the Sydney International Exhibition was known as the Garden Palace, in homage to the first International Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace in London in 1851. (14) This area which this occupied later became the Garden Palace Grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens. (15)

On 22 July 1879 the Sydney International Exhibition Act of 1879 (43 Vic. No.8) was passed. The Act provided for the disposal of Entrance Fees and other moneys received by the International Exhibition Commissioners and for expenses connected with the Exhibition Buildings and the management of the Exhibition. The money was to be paid into consolidated revenue fund to defray the expenses necessary for the completion of the Exhibition Buildings and connected works. (16)

On 1 August 1879 additional Commissioners were appointed, being: John Alger; Edward Combes CMG; Henry Halloran CMG; Patrick Higgins JP; Richard Hill JP; Sir Joseph George Long Innes, Kt MLC; William Hall Palmer JP; William Richman Piddington JP; Robert Burdett Smith MP; and, Samuel Henry Terry. (20)

Despite intentions for the exhibition to originally be held in August the progress of building works delayed the proposed opening until September 1879. The planned opening was also delayed by rain, with the Sydney International Exhibition officially opened on 17 September 1879. (17) The Exhibition was formally closed by His Excellency Lord Augustus Loftus, Governor, on 20 April 1880. (18) It was estimated that 1,117,536 persons had attended the Exhibition which had been open for 185 days. (19) Officially the cost of the Exhibition was £311,138 19 s. 1d, comprising the cost of the Exhibition buildings being £240,086 14s 5d. and salaries of officials and other expenditure being £71,052 4s. 8d. with its income just £43,896 13s. 0d. (21)

It appears the work of the Commission finally ceased in September 1881. (22)

Postscript
After the exhibition closed the Garden Palace building was used for concerts and meetings and for government offices and storage of government records, but the building unexpectedly burnt down on 22 September 1882. (23)

Endnotes
1. Shirley Fitzgerald, 'The Garden Palace and Sydney's International Exhibition 1879', Chapter 4 (pp.67-95) in Significant Sites: History and Public Works in New South Wales, ed. by Lenore Coltheart. Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1989, p.67.
2. NSW Government Gazette No.45, 7 February 1878, pp.567-579.
3. Fitzgerald, op. cit., pp.68-69.
4. The Australian Encyclopaedia, ed. by Arthur Wilberforce Jose and Herbert James Carter. Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1925, Vol. 1, p.416 (q.v. Exhibitions).
5. NSW Government Gazette No.414, 31 December 1878, p.511.
6. NSW Government Gazette No.16, Friday 17 January 1879, p.216.
7. ibid., p.216.
8. ibid. No.24, 24 January 1879, p.323.
9. ibid., No.55, 18 February 1879, p.749.
10. Blue Book of New South Wales for 1880. Sydney, Government Printer, 1881, p.38.
11. ibid., p.38.
12. Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 1882, p.7.
13. Ibid.
14. Peter Proudfoot, 'John Young, James Barnet and the 1879 Garden Palace International Exhibition in Sydney', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol.86 Part 1 (June 2000), pp.4-5.
15. R.H. Anderson, An ABC of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Sydney, Government Printer, 1965, p.86.
14. Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 1882, p.7.
16. Sydney International Exhibition Act of 1879 (43 Vic. No.8).
17. Fitzgerald, op. cit., p.90; The Australian Encyclopaedia, ed. by Arthur Wilberforce Jose and Herbert James Carter. Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1925, Vol. 1, p.416 (q.v. Exhibitions).
18. Sydney Morning Herald, 21 April 1880, p.9.
19. Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 1882, p.7.
20. NSW Government Gazette No.281, 1 August 1879, p.3437.
21. Votes and Proceedings of the NSW Legislative Assembly, 1880-81, Vol. 3, p.997; Fitzgerald, op. cit., p.70.
22. NRS 11410, Registers of letters received, Jan 1879-Sep 1881 [4/1273].
23. Peter Orlovich, in Australian Library History in Context: Papers for the Third Forum on Australian Library History, University of New South Wales, 17 and 18 July 1987, ed. by W. Boyd Rayward. Sydney, University of New South Wales, School of Librarianship, 1988, pp. 85-98; Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 1882, p.7.