Edwin Hubert Henderson (1885–1939), Hardy Brothers Limited (established 1853, fabricator), Key used by the Duke of York to open Parliament House, 9 May 1927, Official Gifts Collection, Parliament House Art Collection; Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects (established 1979, designer), Royal Australian Mint (established 1965, fabricator), Ceremonial key used by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to open Parliament House, 9 May 1988, Art/Craft Program, Parliament House Art Collection.

The keys to Australia’s Provisional and Permanent Parliament Houses are rich in symbolism and form part of the Parliament House Art Collection. Keys can represent the opening of access to knowledge, freedom and security, as well as new opportunities. In ceremonial occasions, their symbolic meaning mirrors the sentiment of the event as a new beginning. The keyholders in these events traditionally have a special responsibility that symbolises their authority and power.

On 9 May 1927 the Duke of York (later King George VI) used this key designed by Edwin Henderson to open Australia’s Provisional Parliament House. Three keys were made for the occasion – two to be used to open the doors, and a third made as a gift to the Duke. At the opening, the Duke remarked, ‘[O]ne feels the stirrings of a new birth, a quickened national activity, of a fuller consciousness of your destiny as one of the great self-governing units of the British Empire’.

Sixty-one years later on 9 May 1988, his daughter, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, opened Australia’s new, permanent, Parliament House using keys designed by the building’s architects, Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp. ‘Parliament … is both the living expression of [Australia’s] Federation and the embodiment of the democratic principles of freedom, equality and justice’, she said. The granting to the Queen of symbolic custody of the nation and its government reinforced the monarch’s role as Australia’s head of State.