Appendix D: History of the Place

Introduction

The history presented below focuses primarily on the building, fabric and setting. Old Parliament House has a rich and varied social history from its construction through the 61 years of its being home to the machinations, events and controversies of the Australian Parliament; this history is alluded to here, but not covered in any depth. This history was originally researched and written by Brendan O’Keefe to inform the Conservation Management Plan 2000. The social history of the site is researched, recorded and presented through the interpretation and exhibition programs.

A Provisional Parliament House

The Federation of the Australian colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901 created a need for building accommodation to house the functions of the new federal government, most importantly its Parliament. Though the Australian Constitution stipulated that the seat of government was to be established in New South Wales outside a 100-mile (160-kilometre) radius of Sydney, no decision had been made as to its location at the time of Federation. In the absence of a permanent home for the Commonwealth Parliament, the first Parliament was ceremonially opened in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne on 9 May 1901 and, for the next 26 years, met in the Victorian Parliament House in the city’s Spring Street. Canberra was eventually chosen as the seat of government in October 1908, and in 1911 an international competition was held to select a design for the federal capital.

The winner was the Chicago architect, Walter Burley Griffin. An official commencement to the major task of building the new city was made in 1913, but the world war and post-war stringencies brought development works to a virtual standstill for many years. It was not until 1927 that Parliament was moved to the Federal Capital Territory, and even then little progress had been made in building the city. In his winning design for the federal capital, Griffin had fixed upon Kurrajong Hill, now Capital Hill, as the focal point of his city. From it, the main avenues of the city radiated outward, and from it also ran the city’s principal axis – the Land Axis – to Mount Ainslie. Lying astride the Land Axis, Griffin’s ‘Government Group’ of buildings was to occupy a triangle formed by Commonwealth Avenue, King’s Avenue and the central basin of his ornamental lake. The apex of this ‘Parliamentary Triangle’ rested on Kurrajong Hill which was to be crowned by a Capitol building. Somewhat oddly, given that the rationale for the development of Canberra was for it to become the seat of Commonwealth Parliament, Griffin did not intend his Capitol building to be a legislature or parliament like its namesake in Washington. Instead, he envisaged it as a ceremonial or cultural edifice ‘representing the sentimental and spiritual head … of the Government of the Federation’ and commemorating the achievements of the Australian people. Parliament House was to occupy a position on Camp Hill, north of and lower than this structure. On the slope running down to the shores of the lake from Parliament House and confined within the boundaries of the Parliamentary Triangle, Griffin placed the rest of his Government Group, which comprised a series of departmental and judicial buildings. The whole scheme represented in a physical form the current conception, shared by Griffin, of the principal components of government – legislative, executive and judicial – their desired separation in a parliamentary democracy and the hierarchical relationship between them.