Royal Mint Sydney

With the discovery of gold near Bathurst in New South Wales in early 1851, huge quantities of unrefined gold began to circulate around the colony. To regain control of the economy, the colony proposed that the British government establish a Sydney branch of the Royal Mint. Approval was given in 1853, and the Sydney hospital’s southern wing was chosen as the site.

Open for business in 1855, the Sydney Royal Mint was the first overseas branch of the Royal Mint. The hospital building was converted into offices, including a bullion office for receiving gold, while new buildings to the rear contained the factory for processing the gold into coins. Today, when you walk through the entrance to the buildings at the rear of the Mint, you can see the underground machinery shafts, original roof structures and prefabricated cast-iron frame. Similar in design to structural elements used in London’s Crystal Palace, which was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, the iron frame was specially commissioned by the Deputy Master of the Mint, Captain Edward Ward. Manufactured at the Horsley Iron Foundry in England, it was assembled and checked at the Woolwich Dockyard before being disassembled for the journey by ship and assembled again in Sydney. This structure makes the Mint an outstanding example of mid-Victorian technology, and its use of terracotta tiles in the ceilings is probably the earliest example of fire-proofed construction in Australia.

For the modern gold market, the Sydney mint is most famous for one fact: it was the place where Francis Miller developed the new process for refining gold which now bears his name. Patented in 1867, the Miller chlorine process rapidly spread around the world and more than 150 years later, it is still the bedrock of gold refining in many of the world's major refineries.

Like its neighbour, the Hyde Park Barracks, the Mint narrowly escaped demolition in the early 20th century. In 1909, a royal commission recommended that the buildings be demolished as part of a scheme to beautify the city – the industrial complex of the Mint was considered inappropriate for Macquarie Street. But funding for the redevelopment proved elusive and the buildings were spared. By this time, other mints were already operating in Melbourne and Perth, so with its outdated machinery and declining profits, the Sydney Mint finally closed in December 1926.

The above text is courtesy of Sydney Living Museums, which cares for a group of 12 of the most important historic houses, gardens and museums in New South Wales.