What was the original estimated cost of the Sydney Opera House in Australian dollars? The original estimate was A$7 million.
That estimate came from the project’s early planning in 1957. It was expressed as £3.5 million and converted in contemporary Australian terms to approximately A$7 million. The estimate was paired with an ambitious target completion date of 26 January 1963, Australia Day.
The final project was dramatically more expensive. The Sydney Opera House was formally completed in 1973 at a reported cost of about A$102 million, after major design changes, engineering challenges, construction delays and political conflict. Work began before every technical problem had been solved.
The original estimate is therefore not the building’s eventual price. A frequent quiz mistake is to answer with the final cost rather than the 1957 projection. The project’s huge overrun became one of the best-known episodes in modern architectural and construction history.