The Prize Design for the New Parliament Houses, Adelaide.

Rare colonial engraving of the design for the proposed South Australian Parliament House. The dome and the two smaller towers either side were not built due the bank collapses of the C1880s.

A commission had been appointed 1874 to adjudicate a design competition for the new building that would form the basis of ‘New’ Parliament House. The winning design was by Adelaide architect Edmund Wright and his partner Lloyd Taylor.. This Greek Revival design featured ornate columns of the Corinthian order, impressive towers, and a grand dome. 

Parliament House was built with Kapunda marble and West Island granite. Construction began on the West Wing in 1874 and was completed in 1889 at a cost of £165,404. However, lack of funds resulted in the towers and dome being removed from the design that was implemented. The South Australian Legislative Council continued in the Old Parliament House next door. Economic depression in the 1890s delayed the completion of Parliament House, and it was not until 1913 that plans were sketched for the East Wing. The outbreak of the Great War again delayed construction. 

The project was taken up again in the 1930s following a £100,000 gift by Sir John Langdon Bonython, who sent a cheque to the State Premier with a note indicating the money should be used to complete the half finished Parliament house on North Terrace. The project also functioned as a job generation scheme to alleviate the mass unemployment of the Great Depression. Work began on the East Wing in 1936, the year of South Australia’s centenary, and was completed three years later in 1939 at a cost of £241,887.

From the original edition of the Australasia Sketcher.

Collections:

State Library of Victoria: Accession no: A/S05/09/74/92