Admiralty House, Sydney
Admiralty House is the official Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia. It is located in the suburb of Kirribilli, on the northern foreshore of Sydney Harbour (adjacent to Kirribilli House, which is the Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister). This large, Italianate, sandstone mansion occupies the tip of Kirribilli Point. Once known as "Wotonga", it has commanding views across Sydney Harbour to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.
Its current name originates in the fact that it served as the residence for the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's Australia Squadron from 1885 to 1913.
The original building on the site was completed, as a private dwelling, in mid-to-late 1843, by John George Nathaniel Gibbes, the then Collector of Customs for New South Wales and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. A portrait of Gibbes, painted in 1808, hangs in the house.
Before the arrival of British settlers in Sydney Harbour, the Aboriginal tribe "Cammeraygal" lived along the Kirribilli and Milsons Point foreshores, and in the surrounding bushland. The area was a fertile fishing ground, and thus the name "Kirribilli" is derived from the Aboriginal word "Kiarabilli", which means "good fishing spot". The name "Cammeraygal" is displayed on the North Sydney Municipal Council emblem, and also gave name to the suburb of Cammeray.
Kirribilli was settled early in the history of the Colony. One of the first records of land being granted on the North Shore was of 30 acres (120,000 m2) on the North side of the Harbour of Port Jackson opposite Sydney Cove on 20 February 1794 to an expired convict, Samuel Lightfoot. Lightfoot was a former convict, born in about 1763 and transported to Australia for seven years for stealing clothing. He arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 on the Charlotte.
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