Old Parliament House Canberra & museum

Duke and Duchess of York opened Parliament House May 1927. The need for a national capital city arose when the colonies united to form the Comm­onwealth of Australia in 1901. The constitution provided that a new national capital should be built half way between Melbourne and Sydney, to avoid jealousy and conflict. The new Australian capital city of Can­berra was fixed in 1908 and the area was formally ceded to the Federal Government in 1911. However the Parliament couldn’t relocate from its interim location, Melbourne, to Can­berra until the new building was ready.Parliament House was designed by Scottish John Smith Murdoch (1862–1945), the first Common­wealth Government archit­ect in Australia, and a team of assist­ants from the Department of Works and Railways. The building was never int­ended to be permanent or elaborate; it was to be a provisional building that would serve Parliament for 50 years max. It would be a classical building like the Parthenon, but with­out all the ornate…