Newcastle Government House is a heritage-listed former military post and official residence and now park and psychiatric hospital at 72 Watt Street, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Newcastle Government House and Domain, Newcastle Military Barracks & Hospital, Newcastle Industrial School for Girls, Reformatory for Girls, Lunatic Asylum for Imbeciles, James Fletcher Hospital and Fletcher Park. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 March 2011.

The Newcastle Government House and Domain has significant associations with convictism in Australia as a site central to the management of convict labour, early coal mining technology and the development and growth of the Australian economy.

The earliest European use of the site was the Commandant's Residence (also known as Government House) where the Commandant, Lieutenant Charles Menzies controlled the penal settlement. The site has remained in Government management since European occupation from 1804 to the present day. A sketch by Ferdinand Bauer (1804) shows the flagstaff and the only small house on the area. The same location is also shown in artworks by Joseph Lycett, Walter Preston and Edward Close which are particularly significant as they show Newcastle's Government House and gardens. Bauer's sketch also shows tents on the hillside of the site. The site also figures significantly on the Macquarie Chest, being depicted on one of its panels.

The first attempt at settlement in Newcastle failed in 1802 and the settlement, also known as "Kings Town" and "Coal River" was re-established in 1804, providing hard labour for re-offending convicts following the Irish rebellion at Vinegar Hill. The second settlement (1804) was prompted because of the prospect of coal as a vital resource for the Colony. After Newcastle was established as a penal settlement, it remained under Colonial administration until 1823. After this time free settlers were introduced into the settlement. Convicts sent to Newcastle endured harsh living standards, intense manual labour in the coal mines and were under constant surveillance.

After 1823, most of the convicts were transferred to Port Macquarie, however many prisoners remained in Newcastle until 1855 to carry out public works projects such as the construction of Macquarie Pier and other works. Convict labour was used to build the pier, beginning in 1818 and this work was not completed until 1846. The military were stationed at the military barracks site to manage and supervise the work of the convicts. Furthermore, the association between the former military barracks buildings and the port initiative (the pier) was of significance to capital works programs of the Colonial Government, convictism and early technology in Australia. The employment of convicts to construct Macquarie Pier was in the economic interest of the Colony and this site was significant in supporting this progress. Having started in 1814 with a small population of approximately 100 convicts and guards, it would become the major penal settlement of the Australian colonies, accommodating up to one thousand convicts.

Newcastle is the birthplace of Australia's coal mining industry and the first modern coal mining undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere. Coal mining in Newcastle provided the first profit ever made in the fledgling Colony of New South Wales of - 2 pounds, 5 shillings - in 1801. Convict labour was used to work mines located at Colliers Point (these were horizontal drifts) and on the hillside near Government House, the first working vertical shaft sunk for the production of coal in Australia (on the current James Fletcher Hospital site). One of the coal shafts is named the Wallis shaft, after the Commandant of Newcastle at the time. The site is also associated with Benjamin Grainger who was sent to Newcastle in 1812 to assist in coal mining in the area, later becoming Superintendent of the coal mines, in 1820. The military was present in the settlement to manage the convict population and to supervise work in the mines and the construction of the Macquarie Pier.

Mining on the site was primitive and labour-intensive with loads of coal initially brought to the surface in baskets. A small rail system for haulage was used to take coal to the port directly downhill from the mine site to be loaded onto ships for export. Much of the export went around the world, and was often traded for Rum. The transport of coal to the port forged a thoroughfare which then became the main street of the township, George Street (now known as Watt Street). The Commandant had his residence in a prominent place at the top of this street where he was able to view what was happening in the settlement, including work at Collier's Point and Nobbys Island.

The Commandant's residence was both a place of authority and a convict work place. Convicts worked on the site until the Australian Agricultural Company took over mining in Newcastle. There is evidence of intensive early mining practises on the cliff opposite the site's entrance. The two convict coal mines on the James Fletcher Hospital site were later referred to as the "Asylum Shafts". The Wallis shaft is thought to have been excavated between 1814 and 1817. Twenty seven men were described as employed in the working of the mine and the mouth of the shaft immediately adjoined the offices of the Commandant's House. After these mines became disused there was very little reference made to them during the 1800s. It was not until the 1900s that a mine subsidence report provided more detail about the existence of the convict mines,.