The courthouse was a milestone building in New South Wales, being specifically designed to suit its purpose and impart authority and the power of the law.

[3] Colonial Architect James Barnet designed major flanking court room pavilion additions to the building in 1884-88.

[3] In 1903, Darlinghurst Courthouse was selected as one of the sites for the newly created High Court of Australia following Federation.

[3] Darlinghurst Courthouse and Residence is a massive, heavily designed Old Colonial Grecian style public building.

The symmetrical building uses elements of the Greek temple form, having a fluted stone Doric columned portico supporting a pedimented gable entrance to the central court (Court 5), flanked by colonnaded wings which stand forward of the robust front elevations.

The courthouse and residence are constructed in smooth dressed sandstone with a slate roof, timber floors and joinery and a marble tiled vestibule.

The courthouse has been added to continuously throughout its 170-year history, but retains a strong, coherent form to the main frontage on Oxford Street.

[3] The Darlinghurst Court House and residence is the finest, and only erudite Old Colonial Grecian public building complex surviving in Australia.

Commenced in the 1830s, it has a long and continual association with the provision of law and order along with the neighbouring Darlinghurst Gaol complex.