Newcastle Government House, Historic government building in Newcastle, Australia.

Newcastle Government House is a historic administrative building from the colonial period located in Newcastle, Australia. The structure features tall rooms with intricate stonework, formal gardens with stone walls and manicured pathways, and period details throughout its interior spaces.

The site was first used as the Commandant's Residence after the penal settlement was re-established in 1804, with Lieutenant Charles Menzies in charge. Convicts worked the coal mines here, including the Wallis shaft, and built Macquarie Pier from 1818 to 1846. Later it held a military barracks and hospital, a girls' industrial school and reformatory, and an asylum, before becoming James Fletcher Hospital.

The building reflects how colonial officials displayed authority through grand spaces and orderly grounds that separated them from ordinary residents. The formal layout shows the social divisions that structured government life in that era.

The site sits at 72 Watt Street, on the hill above Newcastle's harbour; Watt Street was laid out as the route that carried coal from the mines down to the port. The grounds now function as Fletcher Park, open to walkers, while the former barracks and asylum buildings house the James Fletcher Hospital and are not freely entered.

The first working vertical coal shaft in Australia was sunk on this site, next to the Commandant's office; the Wallis shaft is thought to have been dug between 1814 and 1817, and 27 men worked the mine. Coal was hauled down to the port along the track that became Watt Street, and the disused shafts were later called the Asylum Shafts.