Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868:reg:4:p53
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01868
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 4 (pt 53/63)
Character Range: 488920–491572

and impractical to continue with the policy of adding to the building further extensions or the provision of makeshift accommodation within the building.64

  The initiatives of the middle 1950s appeared to hold out some promise that the government would soon embark on a programme to design and build a permanent Parliament House. Even though the process would be a lengthy one, the heightened expectation of a start on the project implied that maintenance works would be carried out on the old building, but that further additions to the structure would be unlikely. Thus, in 1956, a major five-year program was instituted to replace the electrical wiring in the whole building as the old wiring had by now deteriorated to such an extent that it constituted a fire risk. In the course of this program, a new IBM clock system was installed in the building in 1958 and the paging system was also upgraded. Over the same period, the parquetry flooring of King's Hall had to be continually patched because of wear and, at the end of the decade, it was in such a condition that it had to be completely replaced. In 1958, a new roof was put on the building in an attempt to fix once and for all the interminable leakage problem, and the Library was extended to its rear by the construction of an infill section between the two 1938 wings.65

  The release in May 1958 of the report of Sir William Holford, a leading British town planner who had been commissioned by the government to give his expert opinion on the future development of Canberra, reinforced the feeling that work would soon commence on the permanent Parliament House. Somewhat critical of Griffin's plan, Holford recommended that the permanent building should be erected astride the Land Axis on the southern shore of the proposed lake where it would become the whole focus of that axis. In the light of the report, many private members and began to assume that the day was not far distant when they would be vacating the old building in favour of a new one, and that they could thus afford to put on hold their long-held aspirations for their own private offices. In the meantime, however, accommodation problems in the provisional building remained as acute as ever. Thirty-two members had to be accommodated on the

    62      Letters: Archie Cameron to RG Menzies, 25 February 1954; Cameron to RHC Loof, Secretary, Joint House Department, 25 February 1954; Menzies to Cameron, 10 March 1954; AS Brown, Secretary, PM's Department, to Menzies, 12 March 1954; AM McMullin, President of the Senate, to Cameron, 13 September 1954; all in CRS A462/16, item 6/41.
    63      Emerton, 'The