The Mint
Courtyard and grassed area, The Mint. Photo © Nicolas Watt for Sydney Living Museums MIN13_0052
Entry
Free admission
Financed with 45,000 gallons of rum, Governor Macquarie’s ‘Rum Hospital’ provided 200 beds for convict patients. But stuffy, overcrowded and rife with dysentery, it quickly became known as ‘the Sidney Slaughter House’.
Rum Hospital
1816-1854
Functioning 1816-1842 as the south wing of the General ‘Rum’ Hospital for convicts, the site later provided an infirmary and dispensary for poor people.
Royal Mint
1855-1926
Open for business in 1855, the Sydney Royal Mint was the first overseas branch of London’s Royal Mint where 1200 tonnes of colonial gold were minted into 150 million sovereigns.
Courts & Offices
1926-1997
Between 1926 and 1997 almost 20 different government departments and law courts came and went from the Mint buildings.
Heritage site & SLM Head Office
1997- today
Integrating new and heritage buildings, historic structures and archaeological elements, the site today houses our head office, venue hire spaces, a restaurant and café, and is also home to the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection.
The Latest At The Mint
The Mint
Audio: Health, Disease & Death in the Early ColonyWednesday 3 May 2017
This podcast, first recorded at the “Our Healthy Heritage” seminar series, hosted quarterly by the Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine features SLM curator Dr Fiona Starr retelling stories of the colony’s first general hospital: the Rum Hospital.
WW1 stories from our museumsThursday 20 April 2017
To mark the 1914–18 centenary of World War 1, Sydney Living Museums has developed a special mini-website exploring the wartime engagement of individual men and women associated with our historic places.
Sydney Open 2016
Convicts, scurvy and the General 'Rum' HospitalThursday 3 November 2016
Convicts who were lucky enough to survive the transportation voyage, often arrived at Sydney Cove suffering infectious disease or other illness, and were admitted directly to the colony’s General 'Rum' Hospital.
New online
200 years of the NSW Government ArchitectThursday 23 June 2016
When Francis Greenway was appointed Civil Architect by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in March 1816, he became the first government architect of New South Wales, a post which celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2016.
The Mint
200 years of the Rum Hospital: a symposiumWednesday 1 June 2016
Stories from The Mint
A short history of The Mint
When Lachlan Macquarie began his term as governor of NSW in 1810, Sydney was in desperate need of a new hospital. The hospital was the first project in Macquarie’s ambitious building program.
After the Royal MInt
Between 1926 and 1997 nearly 20 different government departments and law courts came and went from the Mint buildings. Find out how personal memories, archival research and curatorial leg work uncovered fascinating tales about the not-so-distant past of this familiar Macquarie Street edifice.
Convicts and scorbutus at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital
Convicts who were lucky enough to survive the transportation voyage, often arrived at Sydney Cove suffering infectious disease or other illness, and were admitted directly to the colony’s General 'Rum' Hospital.
Francis Greenway: the ‘future safety’ of the Rum Hospital buildings
When Sydney’s Rum Hospital was completed in 1816, the buildings were already showing signs of potential collapse, but newly-appointed Civil Architect Francis Greenway came to the rescue.
How the ‘Sidney Slaughter House’ got its name
During archaeological excavations at the Rum Hospital south wing (now The Mint) on Sydney’s Macquarie Street in 1980-81, a few small traces of the site’s dark and often painful past were discovered.
Robert Hunt: chemist, photographer and deputy mint master
Meet the fascinating Robert Hunt, a senior Mint official, chemist and, according to Megan Martin, 'one of a new breed of formally qualified practical scientists', who also found time to take beautiful photographs of Sydney and its harbour.
The Mint transformed
Architect Richard Francis-Jones pieces together the epic transformation of, in his words, this 'extraordinary and hidden ruin, shy to the public gaze' into a vibrant centre, an inviting public place open to all.
Images of the Mint
Macquarie lights
The front of the Mint building at night during the Macquarie Lights festival in 2010.
The Mint front verandah
View along the front verandah of the Mint building, looking south towards the Guardhouse.
The Mint auditorium
The curved roof of the Mint auditorium. The internal courtyard can be seen through the louvres.
Hyde Park, St James Parsonage Dispensary, afterwards the Mint, and Emigration Barracks
Watercolour painted in 1842. The The Mint building can be seen to the left of the Hyde Park Barracks, standing in the centre of the iamge.
The Mint courtyard at night
A function at the Mint in the internal courtyard and bar. This area can be booked for events by contacting our venues team.
Visitors talking to curator
Visitors talking to curator Fiona Starr at The Mint on Australia Day 2013.
Rear view of the Coining Factory after redevelopment
Rear elevation of redeveloped coining factory building, showing modern 2 storey office wing, original colonial wing and adjoining modern auditorium and services wing.
Staircase outside the Boardroom
Staircase outside the Boardroom, The Mint.
When the Sydney Mint’s Coining Factory opened in May 1855 it contained the most cutting-edge technology in the colony. The building itself was equally innovative. Made of prefabricated cast-iron components, it was shipped in pieces to Sydney, where it could be quickly assembled.