The Goulburn Brewery is the only Australian brewery established prior to 1840 to survive intact as an integrated set of buildings, housing the various activities associated with brewing, malting, milling, coopering, smithing and stabling. In addition to the brewery itself, the complex contains a maltings, a steam powered flour mill, a Cooperage, a tobacco curing kiln, a mews of stables and worker’s cottages.

The site was designed by Australia’s first architect Francis Greenway, according to the architectural rules of the Tuscan Order. All the buildings and the spaces between them are strictly in proportion. The group of buildings lies wholly within a square, and the east and west elevations of each are also contained within a square. The theme of the squares is repeated throughout.

Only at Goulburn does the original colonial structure survive in identifiable form. Only the Cascade Brewery in Hobart and the Kent Brewery in Sydney can claim to be established earlier than Goulburn Brewery.

Construction of the Goulburn Brewery was underway in 1833. The complex seems to have been designed for Jonas, Thomas and William Bradley, and was completed sometime after 1836 operating as a partnership in the names of William Bradley and William Shelley, millers and brewers.

Today the complex incorporates a restaurant, function rooms, a cabaret theatre restaurant, art gallery and accommodation.