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

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is the home of the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parl ...

, including the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

(upper house) and Legislative Assembly (lower house).

History

Location

The

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just ''Swan River'', was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, an ...

's original (1832)

was housed in small 1830s government offices in St Georges Terrace, and the (1890) Legislative Assembly in Howick Street near the

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

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

Design

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

-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 New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. 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 (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 A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

and

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

facing from

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

, Donnybrook stone, jarrah woodwork and locally-made

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

tiles. A large general room for members and a

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

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 continuousl ...

'' commented: The eastern (city) wing was added between 1958 and 1964 at a cost of £A416,500, equivalent to in . 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 controlled-access highway, freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking Perth (suburb), central Perth with the city of Joondalup. It is the northern section of List of road routes in Western ...

, incorporating commercial development, and connecting the Parliament House precinct with St Georges Terrace. The Lion and Unicorn statues originally located on the western side of Parliament House are from the Houses of Parliament, Westminster. The statues now located on the western façade are replicas, the replica unicorn and lion are known as Katherine and Digby respectively, with the original statues displayed inside the building. They were presented to the Parliament of Western Australia by the Empire Parliamentary Association and placed on the façade in 1936. The lion represents England and the unicorn symbolises Scotland.

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

* {{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 Neoclassical architecture in Australia Donnybrook stone buildings