The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which our museum is built. We honour and respect their ongoing cultural and spiritual connections in this country. The museum respectfully acknowledges the major role Indigenous Australians have and continue to play in shaping Australia’s democracy.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this website contains images, voices or names of people who have passed away.
xCloseThe Maltese ‘children of Billy Hughes’ were a group of 214 Maltese migrants who arrived during Australia’s conscription plebiscite campaign a century ago and were deemed to be prohibited immigrants under section 3(a) of the Immigration (Restriction) Act after failing a dictation test in the Dutch language.
Bob Halverson, who died on 9 February, was elected to the House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Casey in 1984.
In this oral history excerpt, Don Cameron recalls his election campaign for the seat of Griffith in Queensland in 1966, and the innovative loud-speaker system that helped him win.
Chris Hurford played a key role in the development of Australia's skills-oriented immigration policy as Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs from 1984 to 1987.
Mary Riek was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1927. Mary worked in the Parliamentary Library in 1948 and again in 1966-67.
Chris Lacey was born in Tasmania in 1948 and is a grandson of Joe and Dame Enid Lyons.
World Refugee Day is held on June 20 each year. It is an occasion to think about, and recognize, the plight and the resilience of forcibly displaced people around the world.
Meg Mather-Brown was born in 1937 and was a grand-daughter of Sir Earle Page, Australia’s 11th Prime Minister.
Anne Lynch was the first female Deputy Clerk of the Australian Senate.
Marcie Cowell moved to Canberra in 1946 and worked as a telephonist for six months at Parliament House. Here she talks about the nature of her work on the switchboards.
In this oral history excerpt, Marjorie Johnson talks about her father who was a gardener and ‘ganger’ of workers on the preparation of the National Rose Garden at the front of Parliament House in the 1930s.
Jean Salisbury was born in Melbourne in 1922 and died in Canberra in 2014.
Harry Evans was the longest serving Clerk of the Senate, serving from 1988 to 2009. Born at Lithgow in 1946, he died in Canberra on 7 September 2014.
Brian Walshe was an attendant in the House of Representatives in Parliament House from 1980 to 1988.
Rupert Loof served as Clerk Assistant of the Senate from 1942 to 1955 and was Clerk from 1955 to 1965.
The bombing of the Hilton Hotel in Sydney on 13 February 1978 was a shocking case of domestic terrorism.
Barry Lyons was born at Burnie, Tasmania, in 1928, and is the oldest surviving son of former Prime Minister Joe Lyons and Enid Lyons.
Paul Davey was Federal Director of the National Party of Australia from 1983 to 1992. Born in England in 1947, he migrated to Australia in 1966.
Be Prepared. That was probably the motto of the entire population of provisional Parliament House during the countdown to the Queen’s arrival on 15 February 1954.
