Welcome to our Home – the Historic Admiralty House.      

The Admiralty House has social and architectural significance to Darwin. The house was originally built in November 1937 on the corner of Peel Street and the Esplanade, which had been vacant and in absentee English hands until it was resumed by the Commonwealth that year. From that time, it was the residence for the District Naval Officer. In September 1951 the house was moved from its original position to the present one on the corner of Knuckey Street and the Esplanade.

Between 1931 and 1951, the site was occupied by Florenz August Karl Bleeser, a postal official and botanist of increasing renown. Bleeser purchased land from absentee English owners and erected his home, and designed and planted a garden with unusual trees, palms and orchids in a shade house. The design, shade house and some of the original trees in the garden remain today.

Blesser’s garden still existed at the Old Admiralty House which was moved to this site in 1951. Some of the original trees in the garden remain today. Admiralty House continued as the home of the most senior naval officer in the north until 1983

The house suffered minor damage during Cyclone Tracy and, in addition to being the residence for the Naval Officer Commanding Northern Australia, became Naval Headquarters for the clean-up program to follow. It was used as an art gallery and coffee shop until early 1993. For a time from 1996, it was the premises of The Darwin Club.

The house is a prime example of an amended Burnett "B" type tropical house, the grandest of a series of tropical designs by BCG Burnett. It is one of only two "B" type houses remaining in the Central Business District of Darwin. 

The lush tropical landscape almost completely obscures the bungalow that is the Admiralty House, providing shade to the walls while at the same time reflecting the romantic ideal of what a ‘tropical house’ should be like.