Old Parliament House, Heritage museum in Parkes, Australia.
Old Parliament House is a white building with a symmetrical facade in the parliamentary district of Canberra, now operating as a museum. It contains original debating chambers, ministerial offices, and exhibition spaces that show how the federal government functioned day to day.
The building opened in 1927 and served as the home of Australia's federal parliament for over six decades. When a new parliament building opened in 1988, it was turned into a museum.
The chambers are still arranged as they were when debates and votes took place, giving visitors a direct sense of how formal parliamentary life looked and felt. Walking through the rooms, it is easy to picture the daily routines that shaped Australian law.
The building is open daily and can be explored without a guide, so visitors are free to move through the rooms at their own pace. Its location along Lake Burley Griffin means it is easy to reach on foot from nearby attractions in Parkes.
The office of the Governor-General is preserved in its original state and was the setting for Australia's constitutional crisis of 1975, when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed from office. It is one of the few places in the country where a turning point of that scale can be seen in its original surroundings.
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