What it is
The building was designed by the firm Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988, replacing the provisional parliament building down the hill. Its grass-covered roof continues the slope of the hill, so the building seems to sit inside the landscape rather than on top of it.
Visitors pass through the marble foyer into the Great Hall, with its large tapestry based on a painting by Arthur Boyd, and can watch debates from the public galleries of the House of Representatives and the Senate when Parliament is sitting. The forecourt mosaic is based on a work by the Aboriginal artist Michael Nelson Jagamara.
Getting there by bus
Routes 57 and 58, which run between the City and Woden, stop at Parliament House on Parliament Drive and on Federation Mall, right in front of the building.
Route 59 stops on State Circle after Melbourne Avenue, and Barton bus station, served by routes 2, 6, 56, 59 and 182, is a little under a kilometre away on the eastern side.
