Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868:reg:4:p27
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 27/63)
Character Range: 422093–424836

be like filling a front yard full of outhouses, the walls of which would be the frontages of the buildings facing the yard. It would never be pulled down; history teaches us that such things are not changed, the pressure being too great to allow it.18

  The question of building a parliament house was next considered by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works. After a lengthy series of sittings in March–April 1923 in which the committee interviewed some 50 witnesses, it produced a report in July in which it recommended either the erection of the nucleus of the permanent building on Camp Hill or the provisional structure on its northern slope.19 The government, anxious to expedite the removal of the seat of government to Canberra and conscious of the need for economy, decided a mere two weeks later to go ahead with the construction of Provisional Parliament House.20 Although the erection of a building on the slope of Camp Hill was a clear departure from Griffin's plan, the placement of the provisional structure in this position did at least preserve the relationship that Griffin had envisaged between the various arms of government and their hierarchical arrangement within the Parliamentary Triangle.

  Design assumptions and influences

  In response to the views of Sulman and his colleagues on the Federal Capital Advisory Committee, Murdoch had drawn up sketch plans for a Provisional Parliament House on the north slope of Camp Hill in the latter half of 1922. These plans were subsequently submitted to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works for its 1923 inquiry and important modifications were made as a result of the committee's work. In producing a design for the provisional building, Murdoch had found himself in something of a difficult position. He did not agree at all with the siting of the structure on the slope of Camp Hill and felt that in this location it would be 'rather in the way' of the permanent administrative buildings that Griffin intended for the area. Nevertheless, as a government employee and its senior design he had to design a building to conform to the ideas of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and ultimately to the wishes of the government.

  One paramount consideration for Murdoch in elaborating the design was that the building should be a low- rise structure 'so that the view from the permanent Parliament House [on Camp Hill] will be interfered with as little as possible'. While the building was also designated as a 'provisional' structure, it was intended to serve as the nation's Parliament for about 50 years, with a possible later role for some decades as a government office building. These considerations signified that, for the purposes