Customs House stands on the stretch of the River known as Petrie Bight, named after architect and builder Andrew Petrie.
The current building was completed in 1889 and cost more than £38,000. It was built over the site of the previous, far less grand, Customs House which had opened in 1850.
The role of the new building was to collect custom and excise taxes from the huge number of ships entering the port city of Brisbane via the river, and the grand design was intended to impress newcomers and visitors. The Australasian Sketcher in 1894 described the building, with its iconic green copper dome and neoclassical columns, “the finest Customs House east of the Suez”. Kenneth Jack’s Customs House, Brisbane (1962) details the building’s impressive exterior, including its neoclassical columns and iconic green copper dome.
