Old Parliament House, known formerly as the Provisional Parliament House, was the seat of the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988. The building began operation on 9 May 1927 after Parliament's relocation from Melbourne to the new capital, Canberra. In 1988, the Commonwealth Parliament transferred to the new Parliament House on Capital Hill. It also serves as a venue for temporary exhibitions, lectures and concerts.
On 2 May 2008 it was made an Executive Agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. On 9 May 2009, the Executive Agency was renamed the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, reporting to the Special Minister of State.
Designed by John Smith Murdoch and a team of assistants from the Department of Works and Railways, the building was intended to be neither temporary nor permanent—only to be a "provisional" building that would serve the needs of Parliament for a maximum of 50 years. The design extended from the building to include its gardens, décor and furnishings. The building is in the Simplified or "Stripped" Classical Style, commonly used for Australian government buildings constructed in Canberra during the 1920s and 1930s. It does not include such classical architectural elements as columns, entablatures or pediments, but does have the orderliness and symmetry associated with neoclassical architecture.
Location
View to Mount Ainslie from the front steps. The Australian War Memorial is at the base of the mountain, at centre of picture
Old Parliament House is at the base of Capital Hill at the centre of the Parliamentary Triangle, which itself forms the heart of Walter Burley Griffin’s design for Canberra—an open vista of Lake Burley Griffin, Anzac Parade, the Australian War Memorial and Mount Ainslie beyond.
On either side of the building are situated the Parliamentary Gardens—one each for the House of Representatives (eastern side) and the Senate (western side)—which Murdoch intended as integral elements of the building, to provide both diversion and contemplative space for members and senators. The gardens were neglected for a period after the building was vacated by the parliament in 1988. After restoration, they were officially reopened to the public in 2004, now known as the National Rose Garden.
The chambers
The chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives are large internal spaces, with ceilings considerably higher than that of King’s Hall. Both chambers are the same size, despite the requirement of section 24 of the Australian Constitution that the House of Representatives should have, as nearly as practicable, twice the number of members as the Senate. Both are lined with timber panelling, again representative of Murdoch’s simplified classical style, with furnishings in a similar style. The timber used in the wall panelling, the desks, seats and tables is all Australian black bean wood and Tasmanian blackwood. The hand-woven carpets in each chamber have a pattern of eucalyptus leaves and wattle blossom.
The Senate chamber
The Senate is characterised by the predominance of the colour red, in both the carpet and the red leather of the seating and desks. This reflects its role as the upper house and as a deliberative house like the House of Lords at Westminster. The seating is in a horse-shoe pattern, around a central table. Each senator had a seat and a desk, including those sitting on the front benches (i.e., ministers). At the end of the table is a desk for the clerks and behind them a large chair for the president. Behind it are two thrones, to be used by the monarch and consort or, in their stead, the Governor-General and spouse, at official occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament. The furnishings conform to Murdoch’s simplified classical style.
The walls of the Senate chamber are lined with blackbean timber (which is also used for the furnishings) and above this are located galleries on each side. The gallery above the throne was reserved for the press, with others used by the guests of senators, members of the House of Representatives and the general public.
The House of Representatives chamber
The House of Representatives largely corresponds, in terms of design elements, to the Senate. However, the chamber is characterised by the colour green, representing the historic inheritance of the Representatives, as the lower house and the house in which governments are formed, from the House of Commons in the Palace of Westminster.
There are three basic differences between the House of Representatives chamber and that of the Senate. Firstly, the House is more crowded with seating than the Senate, reflecting the requirement for double the number of members. Secondly, the front benches are long, continuous benches with no desks, similar to the front benches of the House of Commons. Thirdly, the Speaker’s Chair presents a significant stylistic contrast, as it is a copy of A.W.N. Pugin's Speaker’s Chair in the British House of Commons, presented to the Australian Parliament by the British branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association in 1926. This chair was then copied for the replacement of the original Speaker’s Chair in the House of Commons, destroyed in an air raid during the Second World War, which was a gift of the Australian Parliament to the House of Commons. The Royal coat of arms over the chair is carved in oak from timber originally built into Westminster Hall in 1399. The hinged flaps of the armrests are of oak from Nelson's flagship HMS Victory, in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). The chair symbolises the Australian Parliament's associations with British history and the Parliament at Westminster.
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