Parliament House, Perth is located on Harvest Terrace in West Perth,

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is the home of the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative ...

, including the Legislative Council (upper house) and Legislative Assembly (lower house).

History

Location

The Swan River Colony's original (1832) Legislative Council was housed in small 1830s government offices in St Georges Terrace, and the (1890) Legislative Assembly in Howick Street near the Town Hall. An 1897 Royal Commission recommended proposals to house the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly in the same building, and suggested two possible locations: the site of the existing Legislative Council in St Georges Terrace, and the hill in Harvest Terrace, behind the Pensioner Barracks. After designs were completed for both sites, the Royal Commission recommended the St Georges Terrace site. Politicians

John Winthrop Hackett Sir John Winthrop Hackett Sr. (4 February 184819 February 1916), generally known as "Winthrop Hackett", was a proprietor and editor of several newspapers in Western Australia, a politician and a university chancellor. Early life Hackett was b ...

and

George Leake George Leake (3 December 1856 – 24 June 1902) was the third Premier of Western Australia, serving from May to November 1901 and then again from December 1901 to his death. Leake was born in Perth, into a prominent local family. Studying l ...

favoured the Harvest Terrace site, which was eventually chosen by Parliament.

Design

An Australia-wide competition was held for the design of Parliament House, adjudicated by the government

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. He did not recommend any of the entries, but gave awards of merit. One of the awards went to four officers of the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

. The decision was then referred to the parliamentary committee, which awarded the design to the Public Works Department whose chief architects were

John Grainger John Grainger (1830, Belfast– 1891) was an Irish cleric and antiquarian. Grainger was educated at Belfast Academy and Trinity College, Dublin. After gaining a Doctorate of Divinity he became Rector of Broughshane, County Antrim. He was an in ...

(1897-1905) and Hillson Beasley, who became acting chief from November 1903 during Grainger's absence through illness.

Construction

Building of the first stage of Parliament House commenced in 1902. The facade was designed in a Federation Academic Classical style with walls constructed of local brick and

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

facing from

Rottnest Island Rottnest Island ( nys, Wadjemup), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-class ...

Donnybrook stone Donnybrook stone is a fine to medium-grained feldspathic and kaolinitic sandstone found near the town of Donnybrook, Western Australia. It originates from the early Cretaceous (144-132 MYA) and features shale partings and colour variations ...

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rou ...

woodwork and locally-made

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

tiles. A large general room for members and a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

were added to the initial design during construction, which was completed in 1904. The building opened on 28 July 1904, and ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, '' The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuous ...

'' commented:

When the assembly members trooped into the Council Chamber to hear the Commission read, the visitors had time to criticise the extraordinary colour scheme of the Assembly Chamber, count the hundreds of black swans swimming in the blue sea of carpet, comment on the dizzying height of the galleries, and draw comparisons – born of the wearying display of stained glass and coloured wood – between the general appearance of the Chamber and that of a glorified saloon…

The eastern (city) wing was added between 1958 and 1964 at a cost of £416 500. The eastern facade was designed on a Stripped Classical style. The building was extended to the south in 1978. During the 1980s, uneventful proposals were put forward to extend the structure eastwards by covering the adjoining

Mitchell Freeway The Mitchell Freeway is a freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with the city of Joondalup. It is the northern section of State Route 2, which continues south as Kwinana Freeway and Forrest ...

, incorporating commercial development, and connecting the Parliament House precinct with St Georges Terrace.

Solidarity Park

In 1997, protesting union workers established a "Workers' Embassy" on vacant land opposite Parliament House, a site which was later reserved and named Solidarity Park by a subsequent Labor government.Solidarity Park (The Workers' Embassy)
. Heritage Perth website. Retrieved 21 May 2018

References

External links

Parliament of Western Australia
{{Legislative buildings in Australia Parliament of Western Australia Landmarks in Perth, Western Australia Legislative buildings in Australia West Perth, Western Australia Government buildings completed in 1904 Government buildings in Western Australia State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Perth