Stonington Mansion - Government House

Government House

At the Federation of Australia in 1901 Melbourne became the location of government, and Government House, Melbourne became the home of the Governor General. Stonnington Mansion was acquired by the Victorian Government as a home for the Governor of Victoria. The house was maintained as Victoria's Government House until 1931. During that time the house hosted many famous guests, including Dame Nellie Melba, the Duke and Duchess of York (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth), the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII), Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, Lord Kitchener, Sir John Monash, Keith Murdoch, and Ernest Shackleton.

In 1925 Christopher Rous, the nine-year-old son of the then Governor the Earl of Stradbroke, died of leukaemia in the house and was buried in the grounds. His ghost is reputed to still haunt the house.

Read more about this topic:  Stonington Mansion

Famous quotes containing the words government and/or house:

    “For the people in government, rather than the people who pester it, Washington is an early-rising, hard-working city. It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
    —P.J. (Patrick Jake)

    “A nation grown free in a single day is a child born with the limbs and the vigour of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze that he might chuckle over the splendour.”
    —Sydney Smith (1771–1845)