Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868:reg:4:p22
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 22/63)
Character Range: 409121–411997

than this structure. On the slope running down to the shores of the lake from Parliament House and confined within the boundaries of the Parliamentary Triangle, Griffin placed the rest of his Government Group, which comprised a series of departmental and judicial buildings. The whole scheme represented in a physical form the current conception, shared by Griffin, of the principal components of government – legislative, executive and judicial – their desired separation in a parliamentary democracy and the hierarchical relationship between them.8

  Though Griffin's scheme was much altered in the short-lived Departmental Plan, the concept of the Capitol and the position of Parliament House and the other government buildings survived in this plan and were confirmed – or so it seemed – in the subsequent return to the Griffin plan. In June 1914, the Commonwealth Government announced an architectural competition for the design of the new permanent Parliament House to be erected in the position Griffin had designated for it on Camp Hill. Less than three months later, however, the Minister for Home Affairs deferred the competition to an indefinite future date because of the

    8         Ross, J.S. Murdoch and Sulman in evidence to PSCPW, 'Report … relating to the proposed Erection of Provisional Parliament House, Canberra', pp. 73, 76, 101, 110, 121–22.
  outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. The competition was revived in August 1916, but again postponed indefinitely in November of that year.9

  Soon after the war, the question arose anew about arrangements for the removal of the federal seat of government from its temporary home in Melbourne to its permanent location in Canberra. The most important consideration before any removal could take place was the erection of a building in Canberra to house the Commonwealth Parliament. In March 1920, the Minister for Home and Territories referred the question of transferring the seat of government and the construction of necessary buildings, including a parliament house, to a special committee he was to appoint. Constituted as the Federal Capital Advisory Committee, its members were told by the government that it wanted to transfer Parliament to Canberra 'as quickly as possible and at the minimum cost'.10 In July 1921, the committee reported that the construction of a permanent parliamentary building would take many years to complete and would thus considerably delay the transfer of the seat of government. The nation's huge war debt, moreover, militated against the erection of such a building, as the cost of construction would certainly be very substantial.11

  By way of an alternative, the government had already referred to the committee for its consideration a proposal to erect a 'Convention Hall' that could be expanded into a temporary parliament house. On examining the