Such regal residences have grown in notoriety with the raging success of TV shows like The Crown and Downton Abbey.

In reality, however, the sandstone keeps and ordained gardens of places like Government House Tasmania have long captured the imagination of everyday folk, royalist or not.

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Whether it is the demonic gargoyles that seem like they would watch as visitors pass by or the ramparts atop castle-like spires the one could see a sharpshooter having once sat upon when a Royal or Vice-Regal was under threat, questions and secrets remain about what they really mean to the people that walk, or once walked, the halls.

While mystery is no doubt exciting, finding out truths can be just as fun.

In penning Government House Tasmania: A Remarkable History, outgoing Tasmanian Governor Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC and trusted Secretary David Owen have put together what is the first history of the iconic Hobart residence.

Now, the mysteries and stories that happened behind the dry moat that separates the grounds from the rest of Tasmania have been put on paper.

Speaking with The Examiner, the authors shared their favourite parts of the story, the inspiration behind the book's creation and why it is so important to them.

For Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC said, after assuming the role of Governor on December 10, 2014, she was quickly transfixed by her new home and keen to do it justice.

"I suppose the main reason [we wrote it] was that nobody had written a book about the history of the house and the garden," she said.

"Early in my term David suggested we do this and I certainly very much enjoyed the process.

"One of the things about it has been that it's made me look far more carefully at the house than I otherwise would have done.

"You can really take its beauty for granted so easily but having to write about it and also research it, we've really thought about it much more carefully and how it's been used over the decades ... over the centuries."

While the decision ultimately was made to write and publish the book as a collaboration between Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC and Mr Owen, the wheels had been in motion for years.

"Soon after I started at Government House in 2009 I received a Government House history from another Government House interstate," Mr Owen said.

"It occurred to me then we were, in fact, the only Government House without an offical history. So way back in 2010 I started doing some tentative research and it just built up and up and up.

"Then, when Her Excellency took up her office, the conversation somehow got round to the fact that it was really time to get this book actually written."

Once the pair committed to research, they could hardly stop because in every nook and cranny and around every corner there was a new story or mystery to solve.

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Like skilled detectives or eagle-eyed historians, they managed to compile a comprehensive history with information about previous Governors, their families, workers, rooms, stairways, gardens, garden houses, chook sheds, paintings of Government House cottage in Launceston, a jetty and bathing shed and everything in between.

For Mr Owen, the curious case of the stairs to nowhere is one of the mysteries that stands out to him.

"One of the interesting facts about this Government House that everyone can see today is that it's probably the third or fourth incarnation of a Government House that was to be built on the spot," Mr Owen said.

"So there are remnant sort of foundations and some of the basement rooms look as if they've come from an earlier era almost, including an external set of stairs, and they're beautiful stairs, but they terminate in a wall."

While the stairs stick out, Mr Owen said highlighting the interesting foibles and escapades of Government House was one of the things he and Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC wanted to celebrate.

"We've made sure there's a lot in here that really will make people smile and even laugh and it's just because it's part fo the story. And that's what we wanted to put in this book so the one thing it is not is a dry old history," he said.

"When we found an interesting anecdote about a member of staff or whatever we would pop it in and we really enjoyed that," Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC added.

"We were keen to not just talk about the Governors but we wanted to find oput about their families. In the early days they had huge families and children were actually brought to Government House and these kinds of things that are just not known any longer. So we wanted to document all that.

"It's not just about the house, it's about who lived in the house."

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So soon after the completion of the new Government House, building a second Government House in Launceston seemed preposterous. Yet the subject was debated furiously in the Parliament, with northern members adamant that southern members were deliberately quashing an essential northern Vice-Regal residence.

The Member for Launceston, D'arcy Wentworth Lathrop Murray, reminded his colleagues that, whenever the Governor visited the North, he was unable to stay at Launceston, unless he put up at an hotel.

But to show the inconvenience of this he might state that when Governor Sir Henry and Lady Young were staying at the Launceston Hotel, a person rode his horse up the steps and into every room in the house, to the great alarm of the Governor.

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Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC said along with the researched history, anecdotal evidence and descriptions were wrought from interviews with people whose lives have intersected with Government House and that their stories provided a more rich and unique angle to the history.

For Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC a number of stories stood out. She said they had found out about one of the Governor's daughters, Susanna Prost, had a pet wallaby she would keep on a leash, while an ongoing fascination with the platypus was a recurring feature.

Despite the wondrousness of the dealings of a Governor's daughter and her leashed wallaby, Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC was taken by the discovery of a curious octagonal building.

"We saw this octagonal building, which was a poultry shed. There are a lot of old photographs and images and plans of the whole estate ... then I found the plan for the poultry house and so we researched that," she said.

"That was a gorgeous wooden building more or less where the chooks are now in the kitchen garden but just looking at how that was used and what happened to it was interesting."

"But there are lots of interesting side stories of locked up doorways, how the Japanese garden came to be - it had been a rockery and then it became a little Japanese pond and garden."

Mr Owen said the discovery of the poultry shed was one of the moments during the creation of the two-part book set that forced him to reflect on the mystique of the work was and how much of the history may indeed continue to be lost to the ages.

Though the story of Government House and its grounds is intriguing enough, the story of why and how it was written adds another layer to the rich heritage emanating from Queens Domain.

So when Launceston based printers Foot & Playsted had the opportunity to print the two-part $150 work of art, they had no hesitation in jumping at the chance.

Operations manager Ross Martin said working with Mr Owen and Her Excellency Professor Kate Warner AC was a privilege and the finished product was among the finest work they had done - such a regal book required regal printing.

Mr Martin said the type of paper it was printed on and the detail gone to in an effort to ensure the history was done justice and the photographs were as spectacular as possible.

"We printed the book in Stochastic screening which is different to conventional screen that you'd normally use for printing," he said.

The act of printing the book itself was as intricate as the research process undertaken to write it. After running through the printer each of the 500 copies are individually pieced together by member of the Foot & Playsted team, including book binders Mick Ryan and Aaron Page.

As skilfully as a surgeon, workers deftly align the print of the cover with the hardback and front and then the cover with the contents.

"The books we produce here are all bound in house and pretty much still put together by hand," Mr Martin said.

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