Scullin Suite

James and Sarah Scullin were given a triumphal welcome when they arrived in Canberra on 21 October 1929 for the swearing in of the new Labor government. But two years later, Scullin said his term as Prime Minister was like a nightmare.
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Australia’s 9th Prime Minister was unlucky in his timing. The New York Stock Exchange failure – the ‘Wall Street crash’ – took place in the first week of his government. He faced the crisis of economic depression by attempting to manage a failing economy while implementing Labor reforms. *
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This was probably the right moment for a Prime Minister remembered as a ‘teetotal, non-smoking, budget pruner’ who was also an honest and stoic man.*

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Perhaps the hotel's most famous long-term resident Mr Scullin and his wife moved to the Hotel Canberra rather than authorise the expense of living in the Prime Minister's Lodge. Mr and Mrs Scullin took a suite in the hotel where, with the exception of being sheltered in the dining room by a high screen, they lived as ordinary guests. During the bleak depression years, Scullin adopted the habit of changing notes for shillings with the hotel's cashiers which he then threw to people on the long journey by road to either Sydney or Melbourne.

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*© Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia) 2024.