Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/414

 300 FIRST PLAN OF SYDNEY. 1788 for the present with part of the convicts and an officer's gaard. July. The convicts on both sides are distributed in huts, which are built only for immediate shelter. On the point of land which forms the The first west side of the cove, an observatory is building under the direc- ^' tion of Lieutenant Dawes, who is charged by the Board of Liongi- tude with observing the expected comet The temporary buildings are marked in black ; those intended to remain, in red. We now make very good bricks, and the stone is good, but do not find either limestone or chalk. As stores and other buildings will be begun in the course of a few months, some regular plan for the town was necessary, and in laying out of which I have endea- voured to place all public buildings in situations that will be eligible hereafter, and to give a sufficient share of ground for the stores, hospital, &c., to be enlarged as may be necessary in the The streets, future. The principal streets are placed so as to admit a free cir- culation of air, and are two hundred feet wide. The ground marked for Government House is intended to include the main guard. Civil and Criminal Courts ; and as the ground that runs to the southward is nearly level, and a very good situation for build- ings, streets will be laid out in such a manner as to afford a free air ; and when the houses are to be built, if it meets with your lordship's approbation, the land will be granted with a clause that will ever prevent more than one house being built on the allotment, which will be sixty feet in front and one hundred and fifty feet in depth; this will preserve uniformity in the buildings, prevent narrow streets, and the many inconveniences which the increase of inhabitants would otherwise occasion hereafter. Hospital, The hospital is a building that will stand for some years ; it is ond'store- ^^^^^ ^^ *^® town, and the situation is healthy. The barracks house. Qjj^ l^^^ j^Q^ building for the officers and men will stand three or four years. If water could be found by sinking wells on the high ground between the town and the hospital, I proposed building the barracks on that spot, and surrounding with such works as we may be able to make, and which I did intend beginning as soon as the transports were cleared and the men hutted ; but I now find that without some additional workmen the progress must be so very slow that the design is laid aside, and the only building I shall attempt will be a store-house that will be secure, those we have already built being not only in danger from fire, from being thatched, but of material that will not stand more than two years. Digitized by Google