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oil on artists board   George Edward Peacock (Mitchell library)

Mortimer Lewis was appointed Colonial Architect on 1 January 1835

 It was not until 28 September 1837 that the Secretary of State finally agreed to Governor Bourke's structure of having a Colonial Architect and a Colonial Engineer reporting direct to him.

 It was clear that the Governor and the Colonial Architect were able to work well together. Mortimer Lewis remained as Government Architect for 15 years, far longer than any previous Colonial Architect.

Lewis with his new found authority as Colonial Architect expending the Colony's own funds for buildings related to the police and the law became involved in a large program of works.

 He was asked by Governor Bourke to prepare plans for a new Courthouse at Darlinghurst and devised the politically appropriate method of construction that enabled the Governor to get approval for sequential packages of work rather than the large amount necessary to complete the whole project.

 Lewis' innovative construction management approach was probably the first occasion that this was used on such a scale.

Lewis' design for the Courthouse at Darlinghurst is a milestone in the history of the evolution of Courthouses. It was a conscious and deliberate architectural composition defining the building and its civic importance. It was a reminder of the authority and power of the law to those passing by. The formal geometry of the pediment and Doric columns owed much to the contemporary English fashion for Greek architecture. Its massive columns suggesting stability and the pediment containing the lion and the unicorn the symbol of Royal power.

this is the court house before restoration showing detail of the left side and the

Roman numeral for 1888  MDCCCLXXXVIII

 THE LONGEST ROMAN NUMERAL ON ANY PUBLIC BUILDING IN THE WORLD 

and after shown below

Judge smells a rat. Legends abound at the Central Criminal Court, Darlinghurst, and a new one is circulating. Justice Graham Barr, presiding over a current murder trial, had the air-conditioning switched off because of complaints that it was noisy. But the judge and jury soon became aware of a nasty smell coming from somewhere beneath the courtroom. A rat-catcher was engaged, and sent downstairs. He didn't have to go far. The rat was dead, quite high, and apparently quite large - its size, according to prosecutor John Kiely, SC, grows each time the story is told.