Historical interior view of works displayed in the first dedicated gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

In 1972 a major new wing of the Art Gallery of New South Wales was opened.The Gallery's Annual Report for the following year noted ‘From the time of the reopening of the Gallery it was apparent that the Gallery needed an area specifically designed to show its collections of primitive art objects. With the assistance of the Government Architect, Mr. E. H. Farmer, and the project architect, Andrew Andersons, this has been accomplished.’ The south basement court, originally built for decorative arts in 1904 but used for staff offices in later years, was converted into a new gallery for this purpose and opened to the public on 18 October 1973. Both Pacific and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art were exhibited in this gallery.