Parliament House (Melbourne)
The Parliament of Victoria has been sitting in Parliament House in Melbourne since 1855 . The only exception is the period between 1901 and 1928, when it served as the seat of the Australian Parliament . It is the largest 19th-century public building in Australia.
history
As early as 1851, the surveyor Robert Hoddle was commissioned by Charles La Trobe , then Governor of Victoria, to look for a place to build the parliament building. Hoddle chose a spot on the east hill at the end of Bourke Street, from which at that time one could see the whole city. A competition attempted to find a suitable design for the building, but all proposals were rejected, so that Charles Pasley , the government architect, finally built it to his own design. This design was later modified by another architect, Peter Kerr .
Construction of the Parliament House began in December 1855. It was completed in stages between 1856 and 1929. The chambers for the Victorian Legislative Assembly and the Victorian Legislative Council were completed in 1856, those at the library in 1860 and the Great Hall (now Queen's Hall) and the vestibule in 1879. In the 1880s, when the Victoria gold rush was peaking, it was decided to add a classic colonnade and portico on the side of Spring Street, which together give the building its monumental character today. This expansion was completed in 1892. The north wing was completed in 1893 and the refreshment rooms at the rear of the building in 1929.
Pasley and Kerr also planned to add a dome to the building. However, when a severe economic crisis began in 1891, these plans were abandoned. From time to time government voices have expressed an interest in adding the dome to complete Parliament House. Efforts of this kind have so far mostly failed due to the enormous costs that such a company would cause. The Kennett government , which emerged victorious in the 1992 elections, formed a committee to deal with the construction of the dome, but the project was abandoned after threats by the unions to strike.
Between 1901 and 1928 the sessions of the Australian Parliament took place in Parliament House, as the Australian constitution at that time did not contain any provisions relating to a new capital and it also took some time to find a suitable settlement site and with the Construction of the capital could begin. During this time the Parliament of Victoria met in the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, which the MPs were by no means satisfied. Many important events in Australian history took place in this building. These include the establishment of the Australian Labor Party at the federal level and the merger of the Free Trade Party with the Protectionist Party to form the Liberal Party in 1909.
See also
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Coordinates: 37 ° 48 ′ 40 ″ S , 144 ° 58 ′ 25 ″ E