Prime Minister’s Suite, Old Parliament House, Canberra

Main Post: Old Parliament House
The Prime Minister’s suite of rooms is situated in the northeast corner of Old Parliament House, an area that was occupied by the Prime Minister and his staff throughout the life span of the building.
. . .
The suite as it exists today was occupied by three Prime Ministers: Gough Whitlam (occupied it between 1972 to 1975), Malcolm Fraser (occupied it between 1975 to 1983) and Bob Hawke (occupied it between 1983 – 1988), and included offices (for the Prime Minister and his staff), an anteroom for press conferences (also used as a waiting room) and bathrooms.
. . .
Positions that worked in this suite included the principal private secretary, private secretaries, stenographers, senior advisors, advisors, ministerial officers, telephonists and secretarial staff. By the end of the 1980s more than 30 people, with others coming and going at busy times, filled every available corner of this maze of offices.

Museum of Australia Democracy

Photos are presented are in the order they were taken.

Read more

Senate Opposition Party Room, Old Parliament House, Canberra

Main post: Old Parliament House, Canberra

The Senate Opposition Party Room was known as the Senate Club Room from the opening of Provisional Parliament House in 1927 to 1937. It was a place for Senators from all political parties to congregate in a relaxed atmosphere to converse, write letters, read, or to enjoy film nights. Use of the Senate Club Room was later restricted to opposition Senators, who had lost the use of their former party room after the 1929 election, since which time it has been known as the Senate Opposition Party Room.

The room featured comfortable club style lounges and easy chairs, tables, mail boxes, large glass-fronted bookcases and (a later addition) sound proof telephone boxes for Senators without their own office space.
Museum of Australia Democracy

Read more

Bridge of HMAS Brisbane

Larger version

This area was dark, so there are two sets of photos, the first withut the flash and the second with. (Or you could head over to the Australian War Memorial website and check out the Google Street Maps version.

From the information panel:

After decades of service with the RAN and having seen action in the both the Vietnam and First Gulf Wars, HMAS Brisbane was decommissioned in 2001. In 2005 it was sunk off the Queensland coat and is now a dive site. Before the sinking, Brisbane's bridge was removed and brought to the Memorial. The bridge appears here in its Gulf War configuration

Type: Charles F. Adams Class guided-missile destroyer
Launched: 5 May 1966

There is also a "key" panel but it didn't photograph very well. However, I can't find it anywhere else so I've put it at the end.

From the entrance, face left and then clockwise/to the right.

From the entrance, face left and then clockwise/to the right.

Blundells Cottage

Originally from LiveJournal

This one is Blundells Cottage from the park along edge of Lake Burley-Griffin in Canberra. One of the few buildings in the area that pre-date the creation of the Australian Capital Territory. Information from the self-guided tour brochure is in italics.

Img_9598

This small stone cottage was built about 1860 as a home for workers on the Duntroon Estate. A number of familiar lived in the cottage over the hundred years it was occupied. The first two families, the Ginns and then the Blundells were employees of Robert Campbell, who owned the Duntroon Estate.

 

Img_9581

The front opens onto this living room, or parlour, and there's a bedroom to the right. Then through that door there to a work room, with another bedroom off to the right. Then through the next door to a little lean-to type hall and the kitchen. And a door to the backyard and shed at the end of the hall. Hence the bright light.

Img_9583
Another view of the parlour. The objects in this room reflect leisure activities that were popular at the time.

Img_9591
The bedroom off the parlour. Note the edge of the wall.

Img_9658

This is the back/work room. This room had various uses over the one hundred years that the cottage was occupied. It is probably that it was a winter bath area during the Blundell era [from 1874], with bath water being carried up from the river and heated over the fire. ... It may have also functioned as a work room for leather working, ironing, and extracting honey from the Blundell family's beehives.

Img_9660
The original shingle roof can be seen through a space in the Hessian ceiling.

Img_9612
Still in the workroom, the doors lead to the parlour and second bedroom. Rough walls.

Img_9665
Also note the different types of flooring.

Img_9614
The second bedroom, off the work room.

Img_9634
From the little hall, looking back towards the front door: work room, then parlour, with the bedrooms off to the left.

Img_9621

Two additional rooms were added in 1888. Initially, [this room] was used as a bedroom. It probably became a kitchen in the 1930s when the Oldfields moved into the cottages. Many of the objects on display would have been in use until the 1940s and '50s. The room through that door which is now used as a office had many different uses during the Blundells' time.

Img_9626
Img_9619
From outside the back door, looking back into the hall with the kitchen to the left there.

Img_9617

The backyard with slab shed. The slab building was constructed by splitting tree trunks into thick planks, or slabs. This was common building practise and only used hand too. ... As the Blundell family grew, the old boys slept out here [in the shed] with their father. They probably used camp beds and kept a wood stove alight.

Img_9636
Inside the slab building.

Img_9640
Window.

Img_9646
Wall detail.

Img_9650

I haven't seen an outdoor oven before. This is behind the workroom chimney. In about 1888 the Blundells had a bread oven built on to the east wall of the cottage.

Img_9657
Chimneys for work room and parlour.

Img_9579
This long bit at the back is the kitchen and office room.

Old Parliament House, Canberra

The original parliament house in Canberra was built in the 1920s (opened 1927) and was intended to be a temporary place for parliament to meet. Its replacement was completed in 1988, and is on the hill above. This older building now houses the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Img_8994
Main entrance.

Img_8990

Img_8995

Img_8996
Side entrance (along front facade).

Senate Chamber

House of Representatives Chamber

Press Gallery

Senate Opposition Party Room

Prime Minister's Suite

Prime Minister's Office