Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868:reg:4:p38
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 38/63)
Character Range: 450117–452860

memorandum, JH Butters, Chief Commissioner, to Minister for Home and Territories, 7 March 1928, CRS A1/15, item 30/1344; LD Pryor, 'Landscape development', in HL White (ed.), Canberra, A Nation's Capital, Sydney, Halstead Press, 1954, pp. 221–22.
    34      Frank C Green, Servant of the House, Melbourne, Heinemann, 1969, pp. 65–66; Souter, Acts of Parliament, pp. 229–30.
    35      Extract from Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates [House of Representatives], 23 November 1927, in CRS A1/15, item 30/1344; Howard Tanner and Associates, 'Provisional Parliament House Canberra: The Conservation Plan', report for the National Capital Development Commission, February 1986, pp. 14-1, 14-2.
  bolts in the trusses, though this led to large chunks of plaster falling from the ceiling. After the plasterwork was made good, however, there were no further problems related to this particular aspect of the roof.36

  A far more serious problem with the roof appeared soon afterwards. By late 1927, periods of rainy weather were causing parts of the flat roof of the building, mainly over the dining–recreation block, to bulge and leak. Before the year was out, it was found necessary to remove roofing material from a large area of the roof and re-lay it with new material. But this was not the end of the problem. Heavy rains in August 1929 caused leakage through several spots in the roof of the main building, while the exposed terraces at each end of the dining–recreation block were flooded, with the water flowing into some of the rooms on the ground floor. An effort was made to fix the leaks in the main building, except for that over the Ministerial Party Room (Room M95) which could not be located. In an attempt to rectify the problem with the terraces of the dining– recreation block, three layers of bituminous felt were laid over the entire area. These attempted solutions, however, did not prove successful. Further episodes of rain saw serious leaks develop through the roofs over all of the covered ways and, in the main building, in that part of the roof over the suite occupied by the President of the Senate (Rooms M251-3). At the same time, smaller leaks persisted over the Ministerial Party Room and the former Opposition Party Room (Room M44), which was now used by the Country Party. The leaks were mainly attributed to minor cracks opening up in the concrete of the roofs as settling of the foundations occurred in the new building. Renewed efforts were made to fix the defects, including laying 80 tons of gravel on the roof of the main building, but the difficulties with the roof never completely disappeared. As TR Casboulte, the Executive Architect at the time, indicated, the sheer expanse of flat roof – 4,580 square