Macquarie Arms Hotel

The Macquarie Arms Hotel is situated on the corner of George Street and Thompson Square, Windsor New South Wales.

The two storey brick Georgian building with cellar and additional attic rooms was constructed in 1815 by Richard Fitzgerald and is the oldest remaining structure in Australia built as an inn. The building has however, not been in continuous use as a hotel having been occupied by garrison soldiers stationed at Windsor during the 1830s and as a private home 1840 -1872. It was operated by the Bushell family as the Royal Hotel from 1872 until 1900. Although there have been extensive additions to the front and side elevations of the building, much of the original cedar interior woodwork is still intact including the original staircases and colonial fanlights.

Richard Fitzgerald (1772-1840), arrived in the colony of NSW as a convict aboard the William and Ann in 1791 and became one of the most influential citizens in the district holding many important government positions including superintendent of convicts and works at Windsor. He built the ‘large and commodious inn’ at the insistence of Governor Macquarie and a cottage for his family next door where the modern Fitzgerald House now stands.

The cottage remained in the Fitzgerald family until about 1913 and was demolished in about 1936. A plaque on the garden wall facing the square indicates the height of the greatest recorded flood of 1867, when the river reached 19.3 metres. The wall to which the plaque is affixed is thought to be made of bricks rejected from St Matthews Anglican Church in Moses Street in 1817.

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