Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306:reg:24:p2
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 24 (pt 2/3)
Character Range: 56970–59893

in the agreement, it would have buildings ready in Canberra for MacKenzie to occupy, although this was not actually what the agreement specified.27

  Unfortunately, MacKenzie also interpreted the agreement in this way, a fact that later led to friction between himself and the government. As it was, the government was not well-placed in the period 1924-27 to erect a major museum building in Canberra or, for that matter, anywhere else. With its commitment to transferring the seat of power to the new federal territory, the government was already heavily engaged in a major building program in Canberra, notably the construction of Parliament House. Funds and labour were not readily available for the building of the proposed museum. The scale of the project, moreover, was rather greater than it first appeared, involving not just the construction of a museum building, but the erection of residences for MacKenzie and his staff who were to accompany him from Melbourne. In addition, it included the laying out of a sizeable reserve for his live specimens, complete with animal houses, enclosures and ponds of various kinds. The whole project promised to be quite an expensive undertaking.

  It may be asked why the government decided to take on a task of this magnitude at such an inconvenient time. Certainly, the threatened loss overseas of a unique and irreplaceable collection of specimens of Australian fauna was a powerful motivating factor in the government's initially agreeing to acquire and house MacKenzie's collection. Indeed, the original title of the proposed institution, the 'National Museum of Australian Zoology', was probably a reflection of the government's primary assessment of the collection's value as a comprehensive assemblage of specimens of Australia's native animals, as distinct from the collection's supposed value to research on human health problems.

  Beyond that assessment, however, the government had other considerations in mind. For one thing, it wanted to make Canberra not just the country's administrative capital, but also the national centre for Australian culture, education and science. Virtually at the same time as he agreed on the Commonwealth's behalf to acquire MacKenzie's collection, Senator Pearce secured Cabinet approval for the building, at a cost of about £13,000 per annum, of an observatory on Mount Stromlo. The government was already committed to the establishment of a national library in Canberra and, rather more vaguely, to the eventual foundation of a university. With institutions of this character destined for Canberra, it was singularly appropriate that the national capital should also house the nation's foremost collection of specimens of native animals. As the British Medical Journal pointed out in hailing the government's decision to establish a museum of Australian zoology, 'the new Commonwealth Capital at Canberra … will then become