Old Parliament House

Old Parliament House was the headquarters of Australian government from the 1920s to 1988, this building is a must for political and/or historical junkies. The building gives a real feel of what it was like when it was in use and has regularly rotating exhibitions on the controversies and scandals that rocked Australian politics.

Most of the main rooms in Old Parliament House - the Prime Minister’s office, the Cabinet Room, the various party rooms, the two houses – are open to visitors, as are many smaller rooms like the whips’ offices and the broadcasting area.

There are also historical photos of Old Parliament House and Canberra as it used to be, including the times prior to the creation of the artificial lake that show Canberra under snow during winter (the lake warmed up the city and snow falls rarely on the city now).

Old Parliament House, formerly known as the Provisional Parliament House, was the seat of the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988. The building was opened in 9 May 1927 as a temporary base for the Commonwealth Parliament following its relocation from Melbourne to the new capital, Canberra, until a grander building could be constructed.

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 1 May 2008 it was made an Executive Agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet reporting to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator John Faulkner.

Designed by John Smith Murdoch and a team of assistants, Old Parliament House was intended to be neither temporary nor permanent – only to be ‘provisional’ building that would serve as a parliament for fifty years. The design brief extended from the building to include its gardens, décor and furnishings.

Old Parliament House is constructed in the ‘stripped Classical’ style, common in Australian government buildings constructed in Canberra during the 1920s and 1930s. It does not include classical architectural elements such as columns, entablatures or pediments, but does have the orderliness and symmetry associated with neoclassical architecture. The building’s design was, and is, considered a success because of the clarity of shape, regular composition, dazzling whiteness and pleasantly human scale.