Bourke established the Colonial Architect's Department in 1832 to be responsible for the planning and supervision of the construction and repair of public buildings. In general, the Colonial Architect's Department had charge of public buildings and their furniture, the duty of preparing plans and specifications for construction and repair and superintending all works executed by contract. From 1833 to 1835 the Department briefly became the Architectural Branch of the Department of the Surveyor General before the Colonial Architect's Department was again separately established.