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The Australian Coat of Arms has been depicted by different artists throughout Parliament House, offering a variety of interpretations of the iconic kangaroo and emu. The presence of the Coat of Arms in all instances acknowledges formal Commonwealth ownership and authority. 

The Great Verandah Coat of Arms is one of the first works of art that visitors encounter at Parliament House. Situated above the main entrance, the distinctive hand-made sculpture is 3.9 metres high and contains more than 700 precision welds.

The Great Verandah of Parliament House, photograph during construction, 1987; courtesy of Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects.

The overall design of the Great Verandah posited the Australian Coat of Arms as the focal point. Pamille Berg, former partner of Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp (MGT) Architects, describes the finished sculpture as “a perfectly integrated, highly symbolic ‘jewel’ on the primary façade of the Parliament’¹

Like all the commissioned artists, Blau was given artistic license to change the stance of the kangaroo and emu. The animals are now evenly balanced and look you in the eye, suggesting the values of equality, fairness and debate. The entirely new abstracted forms of Blau’s design obliquely reference the long tradition of the ‘x-ray’ technique in images created by the Indigenous peoples of Arnhem Land. His design also respectfully acknowledges the important presence of the Forecourt mosaic pavement, designed by Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara, in the Forecourt below.

Commission of the Coat of Arms
Integral to the design of Parliament House are site-specific art and craft works commissioned by the Parliament House Construction Authority. All of these works responded to detailed design briefs prepared by the MGT architects. More than 85 Australian artists and craftspeople were commissioned for the design of over 70 works of art and craft for specific locations or uses in the building and its precincts. Together they created a series of works that communicates the diverse historic, cultural, and political contexts of the Parliament to Australian identity and democracy.

This is one of two Coats of Arms sculptures that Blau was commissioned to make for Parliament House, both Official Gifts from the Parliament, and the Government and people of New South Wales. The other Coat of Arms is above the Executive Entry.

Robin Blau (born 1946), Fabrication Phase: Full-size layout drawing for head of kangaroo, c.1985, Art/Craft Program, Parliament House Art Collection.

All commissioned Coats of Arms at Parliament House had to meet the specifications set out in The Armorial Ensigns of the Commonwealth of Australia. Nevertheless, the artists were given some creative licence , as the design brief outlined a clear desire for the design to find the ‘Australian-ness’ within the coat of arms to, “avoid treating the Arms as yet another symbol whose meaning has been lost and whose form has become merely an exercise in style”². The artists followed a guide of which elements were fixed, and which were open to interpretation, written by Australian designer Stuart Devlin. Devlin understood the challenges of re-interpreting the Coat of Arms from his work designing the first Australian decimal coins in 1966.

There was also the requirement that the Great Verandah Coat of Arms could be read from both sides, as it is seen both from the Forecourt from long distances and at close range by visitors from the Queen’s Terrace .

Four artists were invited to submit designs, with Blau’s success due to the unique integration of the surrounding architecture, the three-dimensional design allowing multi-angle viewing and his own diverse range of artistic skill.

Blau describes his submission as having

… attempted to focus on the historical forms of expression within this country and amalgamate them into a progressive, exciting structure that relates not only to the people of Australia but to the building to which it is bonded ³

Construction of the Coat of Arms
Blau’s highly detailed schematic design is reflected in the sterling silver maquette which he submitted for approval at the earliest design stage. A maquette is a model for a larger sculpture and informs how a final work might look and how it could be fabricated. Blau fabricated the stainless steel sculpture in separate components in his workshop in New South Wales to allow for its safe transport to Canberra. A temporary welding bay was then set up on the Forecourt of Parliament House for Blau to complete the final structural welds before the Coat of Arms was lifted into its position on the Great Verandah.

Philip Quirk, Robin Blau creating the Great Verandah Coat of Arms in his Sydney studio, c.1987, Parliament House Art Collection.

Robin  Blau (born 1946), Maquette for the Great Verandah Coat of Arms, 1985, Art/Craft Program, Parliament House Art Collection. 

The lifting of the Coat of Arms into position at the centre of the Great Verandah, undated; photo courtesy of Robin Blau’s personal collection.

The completed Great Verandah Coat of Arms is a testament to collaboration among the artist, the architect, the project’s structural engineer and the construction manager, all under the close coordination of the architects’ art coordination team.

Robin Blau
Robin Blau (born 1946) is an Australian sculptor who trained as an architectural draftsman and graduated from the Sydney College of the Arts in sculpture and jewellery making. He has completed numerous public sculptural commissions in Australia and Asia, including at Parliament House, the Federal and State Law Courts in Sydney, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Parramatta, and the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute in Singapore.

References
1. M. Pamille Berg, Interwoven: the commissioned art and craft for Parliament House, Commonwealth of Australia, 2018, p.15.
2. M. Pamille Berg, Central Reference Document, Commonwealth of Australia, 2018, p.50.
3. ‘Item 3: Design Submission: Great Verandah Coat of Arms - 15 June 1985’, Papers for the Art Advisory Committee, Meeting No. 27, 5 July 1985, pp. 1 -3. As cited in M. Pamille Berg, Central Reference Document, Commonwealth of Australia, 2018, p.27.