The new and permanent Parliament House

Find out more

Charles Bush (1919-1989), Opening of Parliament by the Queen 1988 (study), 1988, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collections Charles Bush

On 9 May 1988, Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the Commonwealth of Australia’s permanent Parliament House on Canberra’s Capital Hill.

1988 was Australia’s bicentennial year, the 200^th anniversary of the First Fleet’s arrival in Botany Bay and Sydney Cove – the Country of the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples - and the founding of the British colony of NSW.

The date of the opening was chosen to coincide with the anniversaries of the opening of the first federal Parliament in Melbourne in 1901, and of the opening of provisional Parliament House in Canberra in 1927.¹

^{The opening ceremony}The day began with a two-hour concert to entertain the assembling crowd of some 25,000 spectators,² the performances illustrating varied aspects of Australian life.³ Millions more shared the experience through ‘live television broadcasts, video recordings and special colour supplements in major newspapers’.⁴

The Queen’s arrival was marked by a trumpet fanfare and Royal Salute, a guard of honour, and a military flyover.⁵After a multi-faith service, the Queen unlocked the ceremonial doors with keys designed by the building’s architects and produced by the Royal Australian Mint.⁶The formal opening ceremony followed, attended by some 3,800 official guests and bookended by the Royal Anthem (‘God save the Queen’) sung by Yvonne Kenny and the Australian National Anthem sung by Julie Anthony. In her speech the Queen spoke of the significance of the permanent Parliament House:

This is a special occasion for the Parliament, but it is also a very important day for all the people of Australia. After eighty-seven years of Federation, a permanent home has been provided for Parliament, which is both the living expression of that Federation and the embodiment of the democratic principles of freedom, equality and justice …

This new Parliament House will become the workplace for the men and women into whose hands Australians choose to place legislative and executive responsibility. The chambers will become the centres for debate on all the pressing issues of government, and future generations of Australians will look to those who work here for national security, wise legislation and fair administration.⁶

In his speech Prime Minister Bob Hawke hoped that those in attendance:

have a feeling of deep gratitude to all who are responsible for this great and imaginative building – to those who conceived and designed it, to all who by the labour of their mind and body have made it the remarkable reality it is.

[And] we therefore understand the awesome obligation that is upon us. For those in the new parliament this will be an obligation to recognise always in the conduct of debate that whatever their views, their ideology, their Party, they are part of something bigger – an institution which must endure long after the divisive issues of the day have been fought and resolved.

[B]ecause we know we will discharge that obligation this building will become for our nation both the forum for our differences and the instrument of our unity – a building for all Australians, a parliament reflecting the diversity of our entire society and responding to the needs of the whole community.⁷

Marcus Beilby (b.1951), Opening of Parliament House by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 9 May 1988, 1994, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection.

Charles Bush was originally commissioned to paint the 1988 opening of Parliament House by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Sadly, he died in 1989 before he could finish his painting. In 1992, Perth artist Marcus Beilby was chosen to complete the commission. As Beilby had not attended the actual event, he reconstructed the scene from photographs and television footage taken from the press gallery. He used the technique of cutting out figures from photographs and rearranging them into the final composition to be painted.

In his painting, Beilby made references to Tom Roberts’s ‘Big Picture’, the seminal painting of the opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia on 9 May 1901 in Melbourne.⁸He used the same formal composition, placing the viewer at the same vantage point. He also positioned Her Majesty The Queen at the front of the stage, illuminated by a shaft of light to mirror the stance of her grandfather. While Roberts painted some of his friends and associates in the ‘Big Picture’, Beilby included himself and his wife posing as two journalists in the painting.⁹

After the formal opening, the official party moved to Queen’s Terrace, where the Queen unveiled a bronze statue of herself by Adelaide sculptor John Dowie. The Queen then inspected the original Foundation Stone, which HRH Edward Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) had laid in 1920 but was subsequently relocated and inset into the Queen’s Terrace floor. Shortly after the Queen signed the Presiding Officers’ formal visitors books and departed just after midday. A reception for some 2,500 invitees in the Great and Members’ Halls was held in the evening.¹⁰

Her Majesty The Queen, Prime Minister Bob Hawke, artist Michael Nelson Jagamara, Prince Philip, the artist’s son Jonathan Nelson and Hazel Hawke listening to Mr Jagamara explain the forecourt mosaic artwork, 9 May 1988. PHCA stone consultant Bill McIntosh and his wife are on the far right, 9 May 1988. Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (A8172, PHCA:35:05:88:53).

Prominent among the crowd on opening day were approximately 1,500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protesters and their supporters seeking to ‘draw attention to their demands for land rights and recognition of their sovereign rights’.¹¹ Reflecting on this occurrence, the Australian Democrats Senator Don Chipp wrote:

I began to realise that a rather wonderful thing was taking place. In how many other countries on this planet would such a hostile open exhibition of dissent be allowed to proceed in full view of the reigning monarch?

In a rather strange way, this outside phenomenon seemed to give real meaning to the many references being made to democracy in the speeches being delivered inside.¹²

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander demonstrators and their supporters at the opening of the new Parliament House, 1988. Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (A8172, PHCA35:05:88:176).

The first sitting in the new Parliament House

The move from the provisional to the new Parliament House, which had been in planning since 1986, proceeded smoothly throughout the 1988 winter adjournment. Trial sittings ensured that systems and facilities were fully operational, and parliamentary staff were familiar with the new arrangements.¹³ The relocation to larger accommodation also allowed Parliamentary Library staff and committee secretariats to once again be located in the parliament building.¹⁴

The Parliament sat for the first time in the new Parliament House on 22 August 1988, with both Houses meeting on that day and passing resolutions of thanks to those who had contributed significantly to the project.¹⁵ Present for the occasion were ‘Presiding Officers and other distinguished visitors from many overseas Parliaments and Governments and from the Australian States and Territories’, representatives from community groups who had presented gifts to the House, and others involved in the building of the new Parliament House.¹⁶

Regular parliamentary proceedings resumed the following day.¹⁷

The new Parliament House received almost two million visitors in its first 12 months of opening.

Composition of the Parliament
When it opened in 1988, the new parliament building housed 224 parliamentarians: 76 senators and 148 MPs. Of these, 22 parliamentarians had served in state or territory parliaments, including former SA Premier Steele Hall.¹⁸Tom Uren¹⁹ was the longest serving MP, having first been elected in 1958, while Arthur Gietzelt²⁰ and Peter Durack²¹ were the longest serving senators, both elected in 1971. The average age was 48, and most were born in Australia (89 per cent). Their former occupations included lawyers, primary producers, teachers, university lecturers and business managers, and 47 had prior military service (including reservists and those who participated in compulsory national service).²² The annual base salary was $49,180, or approximately $116,000 in today’s currency.²³Twenty-five were women, and none identified as Indigenous Australians.

Comparative data is not yet available for the 47^th Parliament. However, in the 46th Parliament there were 227 federal parliamentarians: 151 members of the House of Representatives and 76 senators.Nineteen had previously served in state or territory parliaments.²⁴Warren Snowdon²⁵was the longest serving MP, having been first elected in 1987, while Kim Carr²⁶ was the longest serving senator, appointed to a casual vacancy in 1993. (Both retired at the 2022 election.) Again, most were born in Australia (90 per cent), with the remainder hailing from 14 other countries: England (seven); Singapore, Italy, and Canada (each with two), and Germany, Egypt, Pakistan, USA, Nigeria, Hong Kong, New Zealand, India, Greece and Malaysia (each with one). The average age was 52 and 21 had served in the defence forces and reserve forces.²⁷ Their former occupations included business executives, political advisers, consultants, lawyers, and union administrators. The annual base salary was $221,250.²⁸

Eighty-seven were women (40 senators and 47 members). Seven identified as Indigenous Australians: Ken Wyatt, Jacqui Lambie, Pat Dodson, Linda Burney, Malarndirri McCarthy, Lidia Thorpe and Dorinda Cox.

Canberra
From the 1954 Royal visit to 1988, the national capital’s population expanded from just over 30,000 to 273,000.299 Key to the capital’s development was Robert Menzies who, during his second term as Prime Minister ‘committed his government to the task of creating a capital worthy of the nation’;300 in his words, to ‘build up Canberra as a capital in the eyes and minds of the Australian people’.²⁹

A 1954 Senate select committee inquiry³⁰ led to the establishment three years later of the National Capital Development Commission (led by John Overall).³¹ Its role was to ‘complete the establishment of Canberra as the seat of government; further the development of Canberra as an administrative centre; give Canberra an atmosphere and individuality worthy of a national capital; and further the growth of the national capital as a place in which to live’.³²

In 1956 the Menzies Government approved a major program of capital works to enable the relocation of some 8,340 public servants from Melbourne.³³ Advice was sought from international experts in planning and landscape architecture. Development ensued on a grand scale with the building of the Scrivener Dam, the creation of Lake Burley Griffin, and the construction of Anzac Parade, Kings Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue bridges, the growth of diplomatic missions, and the development of the city and surrounding suburbs. The growth in population subsequently led to the creation of decentralised town centres in Woden–Weston Creek, Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin. The Commission was abolished in 1989, and most of its functions and staff transferred to the ACT Government and the National Capital Authority.³⁴

^{Prime Minister Robert Menzies laying the foundation stone for the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra in May 1958, 1958.Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (NAA A1200, L26106).}

Choosing the site of the new and permanent Parliament House

Competitor number 29, Walter Burley Griffin – Perspective, view from summit of Mount Ainslie [Part B]. Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (NAA A710 49).

The central panel of Marion Mahony Griffin’s triptych watercolour shows a ‘perspective view of the democratic capital. Across the picture the base of Griffin’s triangle houses the people, facing the national triangle of the Government, culminating in the national spirit represented by the Capitol’.

NAA: A710, 43
Detail of Griffin’s large, ceremonial Capitol building from Competitor number 29, Walter Burley Griffin, Section B – A southerly side of water axis government group. Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia (A710 43).

Provisional Parliament House was originally intended to have a 50-year lifespan. However, it would take 61 years for the Parliament to move to its permanent home, by which time the 1920s building had ‘well and truly exceeded its capacity’.³⁵

The choice of site for the new building was complex and protracted.

In the city plans developed by the Griffins,³⁶Parliament House was to be at the foot of Camp Hill, with Capital Hill the location of the Capitol, a building for ‘popular assembly and festivity rather than deliberation and counsel’.³⁷ However, this intention unravelled with the decision to construct the provisional Parliament House at Camp Hill.³⁸ Debate continued for many years with Camp Hill, Capital Hill and a lakeside site all having their advocates. By the late 1960s, momentum had gathered for the site to be Capital Hill, in part because of the limited space available on the Camp Hill site,³⁹ and this was finally enacted in the Parliament Bill 1973.⁴⁰

Reflecting on the building’s position, the new Parliament House principal designer Romaldo Giurgola later stated:

The site of the new Parliament House is at a vital point of confluence which completes the geometry of the plan of Canberra. As conceived by Walter Burley Griffin in 1912, the plan is one of intense order which at the same time preserves a pliable and enfolding landscape.⁴¹

Design competition and construction
In November 1978, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announced an international competition to choose a design for the new Parliament House.

… for the first 27 years of its existence, the Commonwealth Parliament operated in borrowed premises …

Since coming to Canberra in 1927 the Parliament has operated in a house that was intended to accommodate it for a temporary period. Now that we approach the Bicentenary of Australia’s settlement by Europeans, the Government has decided that funds ought to be provided for the design and construction of a permanent Parliament House.…

The new Parliament House … will take its place amongst the great buildings which symbolise our culture, learning and system of justice. It will be the centrepoint of modern Canberra, the peak of the Parliamentary triangle … and … a focal point for the ever-increasing number of Australians and visitors from overseas who wish to see at first hand the centre of Australian democracy.⁴²

The Parliament House Construction Authority was established in March 1979 to oversee the design development and construction.

The first stage of the design competition opened in April with 329 entries from architectural firms in Australia and across the world lodged by the August closing date.⁴³

The design briefs specified that the new Parliament House:

must be more than a functional building. It should become a major national symbol, in the way that the spires of Westminster or Washington’s Capitol dome have become known to people all over the world …⁴⁴

The building and site treatment should respond to those qualities of environment which are uniquely Australian – climate, landscape, vegetation and quality of light …

The philosophy which the building expresses, and its popular success, will depend in part on the extent to which public access and involvement is encouraged by the design. Parliament House should not appear remote and inaccessible. Access to both the site and the building should be facilitated. Within the building, connotations of a ‘people’s Parliament’ and ‘open government’ will be established if people can penetrate the building and observe its operation …⁴⁵

Five entrants were selected to produce detailed designs for the competition’s second stage.⁴⁶ The winning entry, announced in June 1980, was competitor No. 177, Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects (MGT). The assessors said of the winning design:

… Like Griffin’s plan, the winning design is a building of firm, clear geometry, not rigidly imposed on the terrain but sensitively adjusted to it. This design is not a monumental structure superimposed on the Hill. It derives its strong presence by merging built form with landform. The successful synthesis of these two essential elements has resulted in a design that is at once natural and monumental.⁴⁷

On 18 September 1980 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser ceremonially turned the first sod at Capital Hill, with parliamentary authority for construction given the previous month.⁴⁸

While the overall design for new Parliament House was agreed in 1980, there were thousands of design decisions which still needed to be made. A fast-track method of design and construction was used so that Parliament House could be completed by May 1988 in time for the bicentenary. This meant that areas were still being designed as the construction began.⁴⁹ At all times, the Parliament, through its Joint Standing Committee on New Parliament House, made the final decisions about the building, its landscape, and the interior design.

The new 7.5-hectare building, atop a 32-hectare site, was reportedly the largest construction site in the Southern Hemisphere at the time,⁵⁰ and Australia’s biggest since the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme.⁵¹ However, construction faced multiple challenges, including a 14-week industrial dispute in 1984 and more than $40 million in budget cuts in 1986.⁵²

Integral to MGT’s design were a series of commissioned art/craft works, including the forecourt mosaic designed by Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara⁵³ and the Great Hall Tapestry, a collaboration between Arthur Boyd, the Victorian Tapestry workshop and MGT.⁵⁴

Giurgola described the process as:

… an indescribable joy … It’s more than a building, and not just the accomplishment of the program. We had the participation of all the people during the construction, visitors’ comments, etcetera, and then we spread the working of the interior and craftsmanship throughout the country.

We had a great combination of craftsmen and artists. In working together we learned about them, they learned about us, they learned about the symbolism of the building. The great thing, the really moving thing, the excitement, has been this ability of extending the meaning of the building into different places of the country.⁵⁵

Detail of Possum and Wallaby Dreaming painting by Kumantye Jagamara at Parliament House.
Michael Nelson Jagamara (1945–2020) Luritja/Warlpiri peoples, Possum and Wallaby Dreaming, 1985, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Parliament House Art Collections. © The artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists’ Agency Ltd.

References
1. A Browning, ‘Opening and Occupation of Australia’s New Parliament House’, The Table, 57, 1989, p. 49.
2. J Zakharov, ‘Well-behaved throng waited for that flash’, The Canberra Times, 10 May 1988, p. 17; T Wright, ‘Queen opens Australia’s permanent Parliament building’, The Canberra Times, 10 May 1988, p. 1. Websites accessed 7 October 2021.
3. Zakharov, op. cit.; Wright, op. cit.; ‘The opening of Australia’s Parliament House by Her Majesty the Queen’, official program, 9 May 1988’, National Archives of Australia, NAA M4877 1988, pp. 107ff, accessed 19 November 2021.
4. Department of the Senate, ‘The Opening of Parliament’, Senate Brief no. 2, accessed 7 October 2021.
5. Wright, op. cit.
6. ‘Opening of the new Parliament House: A day of ceremony and spectacle’, The Canberra Times, 9 May 1988, p. 3, accessed 30 August 2021.
7. Queen Elizabeth II, ‘A speech by the Queen to mark Australia’s Bicentenary’, 9 May 1988, Royal Family, accessed 29 August 2021.
8. B Hawke, ‘Speech by the Prime Minister: Opening of the New Parliament House’, media release, 9 May 1988, p. 2, accessed 1 September 2021.
9. The House Magazine, ‘Marcus Beilby and painting’, Vol 13, No 12, 18 May 1994, p. 3, accessed 19 November 2021.
10. Notes on development of Marcus Beilby’s painting of Parliament opening 9 May 1988, Joint House Department file 96/1308, p. 2.
11. Browning, op. cit., p. 50.
12. K Whitfield, ‘Aborigines find little to cheer’, The Canberra Times, 10 May 1988, p. 14. See also K Middleton, ‘Silent protest turns noisy as Queen’s car arrives’, The Canberra Times, 10 May 1988, p. 14. Websites accessed 7 October 2021.
13. D Chipp (Leader of the Australian Democrats), cited in S Bennett, ‘Parliament House and the Australian people’, Research Paper series, 2007–08, no. 29, Parliamentary Library, Canberra. See also Joint Select Committee on the New and Permanent Parliament House, ‘Report on the proposed new and permanent Parliament House for the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia’, Parliament of Australia, Canberra, 1970. Websites accessed 30 August 2021.
14. Browning, op. cit., p. 50.
15. Ibid., pp. 51–52.
16. Ibid. See also ‘A little decorum, then business as usual’, The Age, 23 August 1998.
17, Browning, op. cit., p. 51
18. Browning, ibid.
19. They were Terrence Aulich, Peter Baldwin, Lionel Bowen, Bob Brown, Bob Collins, David Cowan, Peter Duncan, Peter Durack, Wal Fife, Tim Fischer, Raymond Hall (former SA Premier), Allan Holding, Barry Jones, Gerry Jones, Ros Kelly, John Morris, Ian Robinson, Norm Sanders, Ian Sinclair, Grant Tambling, Peter White, Keith Wright.
20. F Bongiorno, ‘Tom Uren, 182102014’, The Guardian Australia, 27 January 2015, accessed 8 October 2021.
21. G Singleton, ‘Gietzelt, Arthur Thomas (1920–2014)’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy 2017, accessed 8 October 2021.
22. D Hough, ‘Durack, Peter Drew (1926–2008)’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy 2017, accessed 8 October 2021.
23. Ken Aldred, Peter Baume, Michael Beahan, Julian Beale, Raymond Braithwaite, Neil Brown, David Brownhill, Donald Cameron, Hedley Chapman, Peter Cleeland, Barry Cohen, Mal Colston, David Connolly, James Dobie, Tim Fischer, Arthur Gietzelt, Russell Gorman, Edward Grace, Robert Halverson, David Hamer, Brian Harradine, Benjamin Humphreys, Robert Katter, Austin Lewis, Eamon Lindsay, David MacGibbon, Paul McLean, Clarrie Millar, Peter Milton, John Mountford, Garry Nehl, Andrew Peacock, James Porter, Allan Rocher, Norman Sanders, John Scott, Jim Short, Ian Sinclair, James Snow, John Spender, Peter Staples, Bill Taylor, Thomas Uren, John Watson, Alasdair Webster, Peter White, Keith Wright.
24. ‘L Manthorpe, C Madden, D McKeown and S Johnson, ‘The base salary for senators and members’, Research Paper series, 2013–14, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, accessed 8 October 2021.
25. Tony Burke, Linda Burney, Damian Drum, Mehreen Faruqi, Katy Gallagher (former ACT Chief Minister), Andrew Gee, Bob Katter, Kristina Keneally (former NSW Premier), Malarndirri McCarthy, Nick McKim, Andrew McLachlan, John McVeigh (resigned 18 September 2020), Rob Mitchell, Dan Mulino, Christian Porter, Louise Pratt, Zed Seselja, Lidia Thorpe, Murray Watt.
26. ‘Warren Snowdon’, Parliament of Australia, accessed 19 November 2021.
27. ‘Kim Carr’, Parliament of Australia, accessed 19 November 2021.
28. Vince Connelly, Perin Davey, Warren Entsch, David Fawcett, Luke Gosling, Andrew Hastie, Alex Hawke, Barnaby Joyce, Bob Katter, Jacqui Lambie, Andrew Laming, Andrew McLachlan, Jim Molan, Rex Patrick, Gavin Pearce, Linda Reynolds, Stuart Robert, Bill Shorten, Phillip Thompson, Peter Whish-Wilson, Andrew Wilkie.
29. C Madden, D McKeown, P Vandenbroek, ‘The base salary for senators and members: 2020 update’, Research Paper series, 2019–20, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, accessed 19 November 2021.
30. Australian Bureau of Statistics, cat no. 2108.0, Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1954, ‘Volume 5, Part 3: Territories’, accessed 6 August 2021. The count did not include Indigenous Australians.
40. ‘RG Menzies Walk’, National Capital Authority, accessed 15 October 2021.
41. R Menzies, The measure of the years, Cassell, North Melbourne, 1970, p. 144.
42. Select Committee appointed to inquire and report upon the Development of Canberra, Report, Australian Senate, September 1955, accessed 19 November 2021.
43. P Ward, ‘Sir John Overall’, ArchitectureAU, accessed 15 October 2021.
44. T Ling, ‘Commonwealth Government records about the Australian Capital Territory’, National Archives of Australia, 2013, p. 55, accessed 19 November 2021.
45. P Reid, Canberra following Griffin: A design history of Australia’s National Capital, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p. 57.
46. ‘Old Parliament House’, Museum of Australian Democracy, accessed 7 October 2021. Bennett, Parliament House and the Australian people, op. cit., p. 1.
47. P Harrison, ‘Griffin, Walter Burley (1876–1937)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1983; P Harrison, ‘Griffin, Marion Lucy Mahony (1871–1961)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1983. Websites accessed 31 July 2021.
48. Walter Burley Griffin as quoted in John W Rees, Canberra 1912. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1997, p. 144.
49. A Hutson, ‘Square Peg in a Square Hole: Australia’s Parliament House’, Papers on Parliament, 55, Department of the Senate, February 2011, accessed 7 October 2021.
50. See J McCann, A Hough and D Heriot, ‘The 30th anniversary of Australia’s Parliament House: locating the permanent building 1954–1974’, Parliamentary Library, May 2018, accessed 11 October 2021.
51. Parliament Bill 1973, accessed 18 October 2021.
52. A Giurgola, cited in J Warden, ‘A Bunyip Democracy: The Parliament and Australian Political Identity’, Parliamentary Library, Political Studies Fellow Monograph No. 2, Canberra, 1995, p. 36, accessed 29 August 2021.
53. The Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser, ‘Prime Minister – Statement on the New and Permanent Parliament House’, 22 November 1978, accessed 29 August 2021.
54. ‘Parliament House Canberra: Two Stage Design Competition: Assessors’ Final Report’, Parliamentary Paper no. 203/1980, Canberra, June 1980, p. 12, accessed 19 November 2021.
55. ‘Parliament House Canberra: Competition Brief and Conditions’, vol. 2, Canberra, Parliament House Construction Authority, May 1979, p. 15.
56. ‘Parliament House Canberra: Competition Brief and Conditions’, vol. 4 Stage 2 Brief, Canberra, Parliament House Construction Authority, November 1979, p. DI/7.
57. ‘Parliament House Canberra: Two Stage Design Competition: Assessors’ Final Report’, op. cit., p. 13.
58. Ibid., p. 4.
59. J McCann and A Hough, ‘The 30th Anniversary of Australia’s Parliament House’, Parliamentary Library, Chronology, 9 May 2018, p. 39, accessed 29 August 2021.
60. Parliament House Construction Authority, Project Parliament: The Management Experience, Canberra, 1990, p. 25.
61. Bennett, Parliament House and the Australian people, op. cit., p. 3.
62. ‘Australia’s Parliament House’, Parliamentary Education Office, accessed 19 November 2021.
63. McCann and Hough, op. cit., pp. 44, 46.
64. McCann and Hough, op. cit., pp. 44, 46.
65. Parliament of Australia, ‘Kumantye Jagamara’s Possum and Wallaby Dreaming’, accessed 30 August 2021.
66. Parliament of Australia, ‘The Great Hall Tapestry brings Arthur Boyd’s vision of the bush to the heart of Parliament’, accessed 30 August 2021.

The new and permanent Parliament House

Discover more

The Inauguration of the Commonwealth 1901

The first sitting of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901

Parliament and the new Federal capital 1927

The Royal Visit 1954

Connect with us

Find out what events are coming up at Parliament House