By Dr Alex Walton

The building now called the Hyatt Hotel Canberra - A Park Hyatt Hotel is inextricably linked with the history of Australia’s federal parliament.

In 1924, a great flurry of construction was underway in Australia’s recently inaugurated capital city, Canberra. At the centre of activity was a new purpose-built home for the federal parliament which had been obliged to meet in the Victorian Parliament House since federation in 1901. The building in Canberra was referred to as ‘provisional’ Parliament House as it was originally intended to be temporary. Today it is Old Parliament House.

At that time, Canberra needed accommodation for visiting parliamentarians and public servants, and for potential new residents seeking leasehold land. The first accommodation house to open in December 1924 was Hostel No. 1 (later Hotel Canberra and then Hyatt Hotel Canberra). Within walking distance of the under-construction Parliament House and the proposed government office buildings of East Block and West Block (both opened in 1927), Hostel No. 1 provided a critical service to the parliament.

The federal government invested substantial funding and effort into the early buildings of Canberra and Hostel No. 1 was no exception. Designed as luxury accommodation, it raised the public image of the new capital and attracted parliamentarians, delegations, public servants, prospective residents and tourists.

The chief government architect, John Smith Murdoch, designed provisional Parliament House and Hostel No. 1 and many other Canberra buildings. His design aesthetic was influenced by the Garden City ideals embodied in Walter Burley Griffin’s urban plans for Canberra.

For Hostel No. 1, Murdoch designed ten alternating single and double-storey pavilions radiating from two garden courtyards. The clever use of pavilions gave the guests a sense of privacy and comfortable home-like quarters. The pavilions were linked by open airy walkways to central administration and dining blocks.

The architectural style was symmetrical with clean surfaces, rendered brick walls painted white, and warm terracotta roofs. Today, visitors to the Hyatt Hotel Canberra and Old Parliament House are struck by the similarity between the architecture of the two buildings.

The construction of Parliament House was a lengthy undertaking with the ceremonial turning of the first sod in August 1923 and its eventual opening in May 1927. Hostel No. 1 provided critical accommodation and function spaces for dignitaries visiting Canberra on official business during that time.

One of the most significant delegations were members of the Empire Parliamentary Association who travelled to Canberra in October 1926 for the presentation of an elaborate Speaker’s Chair to the parliament. The intricately carved neo-gothic chair, a close replica of the original Speaker’s Chair in the Palace of Westminster, is now part of the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD) collection, which can be viewed here.

On 9 May 1927 Parliament House was officially opened by the Duke of York and Hostel No. 1 once again was critical in providing accommodation for the large influx of guests invited to the ceremony and program of events. This date also marked an important turning point with the focus of the federal parliament shifting from its old home in the Victorian Parliament House to its new one in the Federal Capital Territory (later Australian Capital Territory or ACT).

With increasing parliamentary activity in Canberra, and in anticipation of the eventual overturning of the ban on the sale and purchase of alcohol in December 1928, Hostel No. 1 experienced its first name change becoming the Hotel Canberra.

The hotel continued to provide accommodation for politicians who were in Canberra for parliamentary sittings and business, and other dignitaries and officials. To cater for the needs of government and business travellers the hotel established stenographic and copying services for guests in 1933.

Hotel Canberra eventually became the accommodation of choice for the Liberal Party, while members of the Labor Party tended to stay at the Hotel Kurrajong, which opened in 1926. However, among Hotel Canberra’s most famous long-term residents was Labor Prime Minister James Scullin who lived there with his wife after he became prime minister in 1929, rather than incur the expense of running the Prime Ministers Lodge during the Depression.

Hotel Canberra was government-owned and managed until 1950, when it was leased to a private operator. In 1974 the federal government announced that the lease for Hotel Canberra would not be renewed, and the building reverted to serving the parliament by housing the Parliamentary Annexe, several parliamentary committees, part of the Parliamentary Library, and the Parliamentary Reporting Service (Hansard) until 1983.

In the early 1980s the federal government restored the heritage building and leased it to the Hyatt International Corporation. The now five-star hotel was officially opened as the Hyatt Hotel Canberra by former prime ministers Gough Whitlam and Sir John Gorton in 1988. In the same year, parliament moved ‘up the hill’, saying goodbye to Old Parliament House and hello to the new Australian Parliament House on Capital Hill.

In its centenary year, the Hyatt Hotel Canberra maintains its relationship with federal parliament, hosting important dignitaries who are visiting Canberra on parliamentary business and catering for tourists keen to visit the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.

To find out more about Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House (MoAD) please visit: Museum Of Australian Democracy At Old Parliament House (moadoph.gov.au)

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