How long will Parliament House be used before they need a new one?

The front of Australian Parliament House with the Great Verandah and the flagmast. In the foreground is water.

Australian Parliament House.

DPS Auspic

Australian Parliament House.

The front of Australian Parliament House with the Great Verandah and the flagmast. In the foreground is water.

DPS Auspic

Description

This photo shows the front of Parliament House with the Great Verandah and the flagmast. In the foreground Michael Nelson Jagamara's Possum and Wallaby Dreaming mosaic is surrounded by water.

Permission should be sought from DPS AUSPIC for third-party or commercial uses of this image. To contact DPS AUSPIC email: auspic@aph.gov.au or phone: 02 6277 3342.

Thanks for your interesting question, Anu.

Australian Parliament House has been designed to last 200 years, so it should be quite a while before we need a new one!

Parliament House replaced the provisional parliament building (now known as Old Parliament House) which was only intended to be temporary but ended up being used for 61 years (1927–1988).

Despite its size (300 metres long x 300 metres wide) and having 4 500 rooms, there are already some days when Parliament House is filled to capacity. On busy sitting – meeting – days there are usually 4 000 to 5 000 people at work in the building.

If these numbers continue to grow, Parliament House—like Old Parliament House—may be unable to accommodate everyone.