Appendix 1: Facts and statistics

• architects Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp designed Parliament House after winning an international competition
• Parliament House and its landscape setting covers 32 hectares on Capital Hill, Canberra
• construction began in 1981 and took seven years-the building was opened on 9 May 1988
• the first sitting of Parliament in the permanent building was held on 22 August 1988
• Parliament House cost AUD$1.1 billion to build
• the building was constructed with 300 000 cubic metres of concrete and 90 per cent of the materials used are Australian
• 10 000 workers were involved in constructing and fitting out the building
• over 5000 people work in the building when Parliament sits
• the building receives an average of one million visitors each year
• Parliament House is designed to last 200 years
• there are 4500 rooms with a total area of 250 000 square metres
• the Foyer contains 48 Italian and Portuguese marble-clad pillars
• the Great Hall contains a tapestry on the southern wall and a parquet floor of Western Australian jarrah with ebony and blackbutt inlays
• the tapestry in the Great Hall was woven in Melbourne and is based on Arthur Boyd's painting of a bush landscape
• there are hundreds of works of art and crafts in the building ranging from rugs, paintings and sculptures to specially-designed furniture