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His Excellency the Honourable Chris Dawson APM was sworn in as the 34th Governor of Western Australia on 15 July 2022.
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Government House is open to the public for tours, special events and Lunchtime in the Gardens. And stay up to date with the latest news.
Government House is a working House and supports the Governor to perform their constitutional, ceremonial and community duties.
Keep up to date with the latest news at Government House.
Since opening its doors in 1863, the present Government House has been the home of every Governor appointed to serve Western Australia.
Captain Sir James Stirling RN arrived from England to found the Colony of Western Australia which he proclaimed as the State’s first Lieutenant Governor in June 1829. See ‘Former Governors’ for more information.
The first Vice Regal residence was initially a tent camp, set up on Garden Island, near the suburb now known as Rockingham, between June and September 1829.
Following the founding of Perth on the banks of the Swan River in August 1829, Stirling and his family moved to a site on the corner of St George’s Terrace and Barrack Street, Perth (now Stirling Gardens). In 1832, canvas tents gave way to a temporary wooden building for the Vice Regal family in that location.
In August 1832, Stirling returned to England where he was knighted.
On his return to Perth in 1834, he took temporary possession of the newly completed Officers’ Barracks and instructed Henry William Reveley, a civil engineer who had arrived in the Colony with Stirling in 1829, to prepare drawings for a new Government House (situated just inside the main entrance gates of the current Government House gardens).
The first attempt at building Government House resulted in a severe but correctly proportioned Georgian building, similar in its architectural excellence to the Old Supreme Court nearby, built in 1837 and also designed by Reveley. Stirling had moved in by 1834, prior to completion of the work in 1835.
From the beginning, the building was inadequate. Besides leaking roofs, termites in the flooring, and the porous walls absorbing moisture, the House lacked accommodation for visitors and facilities for the large functions expected of the Vice Regal establishment.
Stirling resigned in October 1837. Four successive Governors (John Hutt Esq, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew K. H. Clarke, Captain Charles Fitzgerald RN and Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy) resided in Reveley’s first Government House, until 1855.
The fifth Governor of Western Australia, Governor Arthur Edward Kennedy (1855-1862), commented in despatches to the Secretary of State Lord Russell that:
“The House was and is in such a state that I would not have occupied it had I been able to rent a suitable House. It will be scarcely habitable in winter and there will be a constant outlay for repairs and replacing decayed woodwork etc, while it is occupied.”– (Despatch No. 114 November 9, 1855).
“The House was and is in such a state that I would not have occupied it had I been able to rent a suitable House. It will be scarcely habitable in winter and there will be a constant outlay for repairs and replacing decayed woodwork etc, while it is occupied.”
– (Despatch No. 114 November 9, 1855).
Following a report commissioned by Governor Kennedy, eventually an ordinance passed by the Legislative Council in September 1858, enabled funding for the erection of a new House.
Lieutenant Colonel (later Sir) E.Y.W. Henderson, RE, Comptroller of Convicts, designed the second permanent Government House with assistance from the Colony’s surveyors, particularly James Manning, Clerk of Works.
The Foundation stone was laid on March 17, 1859 in an impressive ceremony conducted by the Masonic Lodge of St John.
The new Government House endured the same problems as its predecessor with the shortage of private and skilled labour and difficulties with the site. Costs spiralled from the original budget of £7,000 to £15,000 by June 1863.
Governor Kennedy was never to occupy the residence he had done so much to create. Governor John Stephen Hampton (1862-1868) and his wife and son, took up residence in 1863, prior to completion of the House in 1864. The first permanent Government House was subsequently demolished in the early 1880s.
While Henderson modelled the new Government House on Jacobean archetypes, Gothic remains the central ingredient in his final design. Government House has a picturesque architectural character demonstrated in the use of stonework and bonded brickwork, incorporating square mullioned windows, decorated gables and ogival capped turrets.
The attenuated Gothic arcading at ground floor level derives from another form of Victorian Revival expression in vogue in England during the nineteenth century – Fonthill Gothick.
Governor Hampton was undertaking changes to the new House even before it was finished. He wanted more space for official and public entertainment, an important aspect of his role, and ensured that space was created in the upper floor to accommodate a small Ballroom.
Perth’s Government House is not large by normal Vice Regal standards, but it gives an impression of spaciousness. It has 16 rooms on the ground floor and 25 on the first floor. By June 1867, a banqueting hall had been erected next to Government House (on the present Ballroom site) in anticipation of a visit by Prince Alfred in 1869, the first ‘Royal’ visit to Western Australia.
Some original drawings dating from 1897 show the early designs for adding a new Ballroom, Dining Room and Executive Council Room to the House. The Government Architect of the day, Mr John Grainger, signed the drawings but the designs are believed to have been done by Hillson Beasley.
Although a major addition to the House, there apparently was no attempt made to conform to the original design. The Beasley design was in the style of Free Classicism which was popular at that time. Unfortunately even this design was not finally built.
The 1899 Ballroom was much reduced in size and style to the original drawings.
In 1989 the government of the day commissioned a Conservation Plan for Government House. It was completed by architect Mr Ron Bodycoat AM FRAIA in 1990, and led to a series of restoration and refurbishment projects in the House and Grounds that began in 1990 and continue to the present day.
The Conservation Plan and Management Plan for the Gardens were completed by 1998 as an important part of the conservation strategy.
Well into the last century, Government House continued to be recognised as one of the State’s most important society addresses. Economic depression and war in the 1930’s and 1940’s diminished the Vice Regal residence’s lustre and the post war urban renewal almost resulted in its destruction. However, over the past thirty years community interest, involvement, and activism resulted in a long overdue official heritage listing and renewed public interest in its chequered past.
In the early 1990s, Government House, Ballroom and Gardens were listed on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places and classified by the National Trust.
Further information on the history of Government House can be found in Government House: and Western Australian Society 1829 – 2010 by Dr Jeremy C. Martens.
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