Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868:reg:4:p34
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 34/63)
Character Range: 439914–442881

Pending the relocation of Commonwealth Government departments from Melbourne, the executive work of government that had to be performed in Canberra was to be carried out by a skeleton staff, or 'secretariat', from each department. These staff were to be housed in two temporary 'Secretariat' buildings – East and West Blocks – that were to be erected close to the rear of Provisional Parliament House. Later, as government departments progressively moved to Canberra, they and their officers were to be accommodated in a permanent Administrative Building, somewhat like the Commonwealth Offices at Treasury Place in Melbourne, which was in effect to form the first of the departmental buildings that Griffin had envisaged for the Parliamentary Triangle. But the government's decision to relocate substantially more public servants to Canberra than mere secretariats, coupled with its failure to proceed with the construction of the permanent Administrative Building, were soon to create major

    29      Murdoch in evidence to PSCPW, 'Report … relating to the proposed Erection of Provisional Parliament House, Canberra', p. 26.
    30      PSCPW, 'Report … relating to the proposed Erection of Provisional Parliament House, Canberra', p. ix.
  problems for Provisional Parliament House and lead to unanticipated early alterations and additions to the building.

  Construction and early difficulties, 1923–39

  With the aid of a steam shovel, the Minister for Works and Railways, PG Stewart, turned the first sod for the commencement of work on the Provisional Parliament House on 23 August 1923. Eventually, around 50,000 cubic yards (38,230 cubic metres) of earth would be moved in preparation for the building. Construction proceeded over the next three years, consuming some 5 million bricks produced at the local brickworks at Yarralumla, as well as 2,000 tons of cement. The brickwork was finished by the middle of 1926, enabling work to begin on rendering the interior and exterior of the building.

  A significant feature of the construction and fit-out of the building was that special care was taken as a mark of national unity to incorporate native timbers from each Australian state, except South Australia. Although South Australia's historic lack of timber had caused it to become the leading state in forestry in Australia, it had no commercial timbers suitable for use in the building.31 Thus, the timbers used in the provisional building and their states of origin were:

      * Queensland: silky oak, cedar, blackbean, Queensland maple

      * New South Wales: hardwood, tallowwood, Dorrigo pine

      * Victoria: hardwood

      * Tasmania: blackwood, hardwood

      * Western Australia: jarrah.

  Apart from some doors to the press rooms and several sashes on the lower floor of the dining–recreation block, all of the joinery in the building was fashioned from Australian timber. Tasmanian blackwood was used for panelling the lower