The Museum of Australian Democracy acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.

The museum respectfully acknowledges the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to play in shaping Australia’s democracy.

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Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
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Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • Visiting
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    Page 5 of 8 — Latest articles

    7 minute read

    Thu 18 Apr 2013

    More than bricks and mortar—preserving and conveying the spirit of place

    We recently attended two conferences—The artefact, its context, and their narrative: multidisciplinary conservation in historic house museums and Interpretation—future challenge. Two conferences, different themes, yet we came away thinking about a common idea—’spirit of place’.

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    3 minute read

    Wed 17 Apr 2013
    Kate Armstrong

    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House—Like

    I’ve been asked to tell you about my favourite object or space in the museum. Where to start? There are so many wonderful objects and rooms in this beautiful museum that I am spoilt for choice.

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    2 minute read

    Wed 20 Mar 2013
    Beck Moloney

    Having a whale of a time with our badge collection

    For the past six months I’ve had the pleasure of working with our Heritage, Exhibitions and Content Development teams and our external designers/developers to produce the Wear your colours touchscreen interactive for the Living Democracy exhibition.

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    Whale 5148e111b353b

    2 minute read

    Tue 5 Mar 2013
    Dr Barry York

    From the Oral History collection: Joan Child

    Joan Child, AO, was Australia’s first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Her death on 23 February 2013 has been mourned by all sides of politics. When elected in 1974, she was the Australian Labor Party’s first female Member of the House and only the fourth woman to sit in the House.

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    Joan child 5133dbd374185

    3 minute read

    Mon 4 Mar 2013
    Libby Stewart

    Celebrating women

    On 8 March the Museum of Australian Democracy celebrates International Women’s Day. This year marks some significant anniversaries for women in the political sphere and there is no better place in Canberra to mark these events than at the museum, located in Old Parliament House.

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    4 minute read

    Tue 26 Feb 2013
    Brian Leadbeatter

    Not just hot air in the chambers

    Visitors often ask our volunteers and visitor experience staff about the bronze ventilation ducts in the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. These were installed during construction of the building (1923–1927) as part of the original air conditioning system. A lot of people are amazed to learn that air conditioning even existed at that time, and wonder how elaborate it could have been.

    Read article

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    3 minute read

    Mon 11 Feb 2013
    Kate Armstrong

    Marching through the paint layers of history—revealing the hidden secrets of Provisional Parliament House (part 3)

    Do you enjoy messing about with sample pots of paint and mixing in just a touch more white or black to get the shade just so? If you answered a resounding yes then the Members’ Dining Room was your idea of heaven during January.

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    1 minute read

    Fri 1 Feb 2013
    Dr Barry York

    From the Oral History collection: Jessie Bennett

    Jessie Bennett came to Canberra as a trainee librarian in 1947 when the Parliamentary Library and the National Library were combined. Such were the attitudes of the times that she recalls how neighbouring farmers wondered why her father would allow a country girl from Tongala in the Goulburn River valley, Victoria, to go to university—after all, she was only a woman!

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    3 minute read

    Thu 17 Jan 2013

    Pests: by name and nature

    The care and preservation of our collections and the building itself often occurs at the micro level and during climatic, seasonal changes. During this time a particular range of threats emerge—pests.

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    Comclothesmoth 50f733c0c0f6d

    2 minute read

    Mon 7 Jan 2013
    Gabrielle Edwards

    The white glove treatment

    After years consigned to the spare room, the garage and the share house, a television has finally come back to its original home in the Prime Minister’s Suite at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.

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    5 minute read

    Wed 12 Dec 2012
    Campbell Rhodes

    A fascist sex symbol?

    The museum has just acquired this photograph and unique letter from a dealer which digs deeper into one of the more famous stories in Australian history.

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    5 minute read

    Thu 29 Nov 2012
    Dr Barry York

    Celebrating the 300th oral history recording

    Our 300th oral history recording made quite an impact thanks to a promotional competition organised with 666 ABC Canberra to select the 300th interviewee. The winner was Quentin O’Keefe who had worked in the Provisional Parliament House as a casual bar attendant in 1974.

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    7 minute read

    Wed 28 Nov 2012
    Steven Murkett

    I am an enemy of the state…

    So proclaims the slogan on one of the myriad political badges collected during the course of the museum’s Great Badge Swap. The program, launched in June 2011, is an opportunity for you to contribute to the museum’s permanent collection by donating a badge that you have worn to express solidarity, dissent, celebration, hope or humour and to share your personal experiences of wearing the badge and what it signified to you. Your response has been wonderful…and democratic.

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    Badge1 50b551b53339f

    5 minute read

    Wed 14 Nov 2012
    David Jolliffe

    Kevin Rudd’s riding boots

    Currently on display in the museum’s Prime Ministers of Australia exhibition is former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s boots. The black leather RM Williams riding boots were worn by Kevin Rudd when he tabled a motion in the Commonwealth Parliament on 13 February 2008 apologising to the Stolen Generations for the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families.

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    Kevin rudd boots 50a2e14c42310

    2 minute read

    Mon 29 Oct 2012
    Kate Armstrong

    Large, small, different

    The first thing I wrote in my notebook when I attended the recent Museums Australia Conference in Adelaide was ‘I feel large, small, different’. Was this going to be an Alice in Wonderland experience? From the opening ceremony to the closing plenary the conference encouraged me to reflect on this museum and its place in the museum world.

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    6 minute read

    Wed 17 Oct 2012
    Steven Murkett

    Riding towards constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians

    The museum recently acquired two significant objects for its permanent collection which provide an opportunity to explore the road to reconciliation for Australia’s Indigenous people—a message stick and a kangaroo skin petition book.

    Read article

    Petitionbook 507e28a0dade1

    9 minute read

    Tue 9 Oct 2012
    Libby Stewart

    ‘My Dear Little Daddy’

    Recently the museum purchased a unique item. In 1936 former Prime Minister and still-serving Member of the House of Representatives William (Billy) Morris Hughes bought a copy of the book Caravan, by John Galsworthy, as a gift for his daughter Helen.

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    3 minute read

    Sat 29 Sep 2012
    Kate Armstrong

    Happy 150th birthday to our dour but magnificent architect who did a ‘rush job’

    This month we are celebrating the 150th birthday of John Smith Murdoch, the chief architect for the Commonwealth of Australia who designed Provisional Parliament House, the magnificent building that houses our museum.

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    Murdoch 5074bda5ee240

    4 minute read

    Wed 26 Sep 2012
    Dr Barry York

    Librarians and journalists

    666 ABC Canberra Mornings presenter, Alex Sloan, and museum historian, Dr Barry York, are sharing stories from the museum’s oral history collection during September. The latest theme from the collection is ‘librarians and journalists’.

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    4 minute read

    Mon 24 Sep 2012
    Dr Barry York

    Bygone jobs

    666 ABC Canberra Mornings presenter, Alex Sloan, and museum historian, Dr Barry York, are sharing stories from the museum’s oral history collection during September. The latest theme from the collection is ‘bygone jobs’.

    Read article

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    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

    18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia

    PO Box 3934
    Manuka ACT 2603

    9am to 5pm daily 
    Closed Christmas Day

    ABN: 30 620 774 963

    Telephone: 02 6270 8222

    Enquiries:
    info@moadoph.gov.au

    Please note: video surveillance is used 24 hours a day around and throughout the building and may be used for research purposes

    Visiting

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    The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet