Australia planned to spend eighty to a hundred thousand pounds. When the war came three states withdrew, and work stopped until October 1914. What rose was a graceful pavilion with an open tower, the names of the Australian states and island territories carved on the frieze, designed by G. J. Oakeshott of the Commonwealth government and costing about $55,000. It covered 140 by 200 feet at its widest.
Inside, 15,000 square feet of exhibits made up what Todd called 'the shop window of the Commonwealth': wheat, wool, frozen meat, 150 kinds of eucalyptus, Broken Hill silver, Mount Morgan gold, sapphires and $64,000 worth of opal. Australia was allowed to keep all its exhibits in the pavilion, and the jury judged them there. At the south end an aviary held cockatoos, bower-birds and a Laughing Jackass. At the other end kangaroos and wallabies grazed in a corral among century-old Tasmanian tree ferns.
It was the 'shop window of the Commonwealth,' crowded with proofs of vast and virgin resources.
Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), p. 249
At a glance
- 140 by 200 feet in extreme measurements; 15,000 sq ft of exhibit space.
- Cost about $55,000; wartime appropriations totaled £30,000.
- Dedicated March 10, 1915; site dedicated July 23, 1914, jointly with New Zealand.
Afterward
Not recorded; presumably auctioned and wrecked. The site is Presidio land.