Ensconced in one of the last colonial quarters in Brisbane city, Queensland’s Parliament House offers a moment of sandstone elegance in a busy cityscape. Parliament House may look like a stately monument to democracy but look closer, and you’ll find a building every bit as improvised, ambitious and chaotic as the city around it.

A riverine rainforest

With its foundation stone laid on 14 July 1865, Queensland’s Parliament House can lay claim to nearly 165 years of occupancy at 2a George Street.   Like all of Queensland’s European-built history, what passes for ‘old’ (in a colonial context) rests atop the ancient.

Queensland’s official seat of government is located the in an area of land the Yuggera and Turrbal people knew for millennia as meanjin – a ‘spike’ or ’spear’ of land around which the river flowed.^[1]  Sandstone buildings and manicured gardens have replaced what was once lush riparian rainforest, abundant with ‘tulipwood, hoop pines and similar growth.’^[2]  Now, only the distinctive curve of the Brisbane River (known in that area as ‘Maiwar’) is left to remind us of the enduring connection of Traditional Custodians to this land.

Grand designs

Queensland Parliament House is not the structure its designer first envisioned.  Inspired by the Louve in Paris, architect Charles Tiffin put forward a classic revival design in the French Renaissance style, with magnificent staircases, decorative stained-glass windows, ornate plasterwork and chandeliers. The original design, which won an Australian-wide competition, also featured four three-storey wings around a central courtyard, providing office room for the legislative chambers, the colonial treasury, the Lands and Works Department, and the Colonial Secretary.

Construction realities

Financial woes, construction delays and budget blow-outs curtailed Tiffin’s palatial vision and the size and scale of Parliament House. ^[3]  Although started in 1865, financial crises from 1866 to 1867 meant work was suspended for a year.  The Department of Works also instructed Tiffin to rework the specifications of the building for a more limited budget. ^[4]

Difficulties with building materials also added to the troubled construction. Tiffin struggled to source the sandstone blocks of which the building is famously made. The prefabricated zinc roof, imported from Britain, arrived damaged, didn’t meet specifications and needed much re-work to eventually fit to the building. ^[5] 

When officially opened on 4 August 1868, the building was unfinished. The Brisbane Courier reported that:

‘The Parliament sitting in their half-finished Chamber, in the centre of a vast pile of debris, with the noise of a whole army of workmen ringing in their ears from all directions, seems to be perfectly in character with the ministry and all their proceedings.’

A Queenslander, not a palace

In fact, Queensland’s parliamentary complex would be continually modified and expanded well into the twentieth century. The colonnade at the front of building was finally completed in 1880 and construction on the Alice Street wing commenced in 1887. In 1979, a 24-storey parliamentary annexe provided much-needed space for parliamentary members and their staff. ^[6] The port corchere (the covered structure at the building’s main entry) was added as a part of renovations in 1982.^[7]

Parliament House is not the palace of democracy Charles Tiffin imagined. But it has been the location of major decision-making, reforms, debate and speeches, for more than 160 years. The building, like the institution it holds, was never a single, perfect vision. It was built in parts, expanded under pressure, patched, adapted and added to.  It didn’t become what was planned. It became what was needed.

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[1] For a First Nations perspective on the significance of Brisbane place names and language, see Gaja Kerry Charlton’s essay, “Makunschan, Meeanjan, Miganchan, Meanjan, Magandjin” in Meanjin, Vol. 83, No. 1 (2024), available at: https://meanjin.com.au/essays/makunschan-meeanjan-miganchan-meanjan-magandjin.

[2] Kerkhove, Ray, “Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane: An Historical Guide”, Boolarong Press, 2015, p 101.

[3] Queensland Parliament. (n.d.). Building Parliament House. Retrieved from https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Visit-and-learn/History/History-of-Parliament-House/Building-Parliament-House, 11 June 2025.

[4] Queensland Parliament. (n.d.). Building Parliament House. Retrieved from https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Visit-and-learn/History/History-of-Parliament-House/Building-Parliament-House, 11 June 2025.

[5] Queensland Parliament. (n.d.). Building Parliament House. Retrieved from https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Visit-and-learn/History/History-of-Parliament-House/Building-Parliament-House, 11 June 2025.

[6] ANU Press. (n.d.). Chapter 1: Queensland’s Early Governance. Retrieved from https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p69721/html/ch01.xhtml?page=2, 11 June 2025.

[7] Queensland Parliament. (n.d.). Porte-cochère. Retrieved from https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Visit-and-learn/Visitors/Take-a-look-inside-Parliament-House/Porte-cochere, 12 June 2025.