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Federal Parliament house

c1920

Record details

Title:

Date of work:

c1920

Reference number:

Melbourne 60

Level of description:

Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)

Type of materials:

Graphic materials

Part of:

Series: Melbourne, 17 Splendid Up-to-date Views Folding Souvenir Card (MELB-SOUVENIR)

Access restrictions:

UnrestrictedOpen access

Use restrictions:

Refer to individual item records for Use Restrictions.Please contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.

General notes:

Parliament House was designed by Peter Kerr and J.G. Knight in the Public Works Department and incompletely erected between 1856 and 1930. It is set in substantial grounds which are significant in their own right and considerably enhance the setting to the building. The design capitalises on the position high on Eastern Hill terminating Bourke Street. It forms one of Melbourne's most important vistas. It is a substantial stone building, lavish, echoing the huge gold wealth generated in the gold rush in Victoria. It a is executed in the Greek Revival style with bluestone and sandstone complex composition utilizing a giant colonnade popular in England and America for public building at this time. The execution is of outstanding quality incorporating elaborate stone sculptural detail to the exterior and fine plasterwork to the interior. All these factors make Parliament House one of the most important buildings of the nineteenth century and possibly the most expensive and elaborate public building in Australia. The building has been the home of the Victorian Government except 'for period after Federation and until the development of Canberra when the Australian Government was in residence, c1920-1927. Of outstanding conservation significance, architecturally, historically and socially.

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics: