The winning design for the national capital, submitted by Chicago-based designers Walter Burley and Marion Mahoney Griffin, is selected from 126 eligible designs by a panel of three experts appointed by the new Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon. King O'Malley (IND 1901, Member for Tas.; ALP 1901‒17, Member for Darwin).

In his plan for the national capital, Walter Burley Griffin describes his vision for a ceremonial public building called the Capitol:

"Kurrajong" Hill being as high a point as available for natural water supply, for tall structure and accessibility, is, through its central location and isolation from other heights, the dominating building site with possibilities in a sky line. The irregularity and variety of this hill summit affords an ideal setting for the one isolated building and most appropriate situation for the two official residences. [1]

Detail from Griffin's plan for Canberra, showing the Capitol building as a stepped pyramid

National Archives of Australia

Following criticism of the Griffin plan, Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon. King O'Malley (IND 1901, Member for Tas.; ALP 1901‒17, Member for Darwin) refers it and three other purchased plans to a departmental board. The board reports that it cannot recommend any of the four designs and instead produces an amalgam of the four designs which is accepted by O'Malley. [2]

Griffin's plan for the city is reinstated, with revisions, following the disbanding of the departmental board that had developed an alternative plan for the new city.

Griffin is appointed Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction, and produces a detailed textual explanation of the design that makes ingenious use of the natural landscape features to project axial lines that create the fundamental form for the centre of the city. The Land Axis is the most significant, aligning Mount Ainslie with Camp Hill and Kurrajong (later renamed Capital) Hill to Mount Bimberi 50 km away. He locates Parliament House on Camp Hill, and reserves Kurrajong Hill as the site for a Capitol building for ceremonial activites and public receptions that embody the spirit and achievements of the nation, rather than as the site of the national Parliament. The Capitol is flanked by the Governor-General's residence to the west and the Prime Minister's residence to the east. [3] The Griffin plan is revised in 1918 and the Official Plan gazetted in 1925.

On 20 February 1913, the Minister for Home Affairs King O'Malley hammers the first peg on Kurrajong (later Capital) Hill to mark the commencement of the survey for the new city of Canberra.

Canberra is officially named by Lady Denman, wife of the Governor-General at a ceremony on Kurrajong Hill (later Capital Hill) on 12 March 1913.[4] 

The Governor-General Lord Thomas Denman, the Prime Minister the Rt Hon. Andrew Fisher (ALP, Member for Wide Bay, Qld, 1901‒15), and other dignitaries are present for the naming. Three foundation stones are laid as part of the base of a Commencement Column, which is never completed. The monument includes six blocks representing each of the six Australian states. Each of the three foundation stones is inscribed to commemorate the occasion:

1. This stone was laid by His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Denman, Baron PC, GCNG. KCVO, Governor General and Commander in Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia on the 12^th March 1913.

2. This stone was laid by the Right Honourable Andrew Fisher, PC, MP, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia on the 12^th March 1913.

3. This stone was laid by the Right Honourable King O'Malley, MP. Minister for Home Affairs on the 12^th March 1913. [5]

Prime Minister Fisher declares that:

Here on this spot, in the near future, and, I hope the distant future too, the best thoughts of Australia will be given expression to…I hope this City will be the seat of learning as well as of politics, and it will be also the home of art.

In his responding speech, the Governor-General anticipates that future Australian governments will find 'inspiration in [Canberra's] noble buildings, its broad avenues, its shaded parks, and sheltered gardens…'. The stones are later removed from their original location during the building of the new Parliament House, and all but the base courses are re-laid in 1988 in the ceremonial Federation Mall in front of the building, in line with the Land Axis. [6]

The Governor-General, Lord Denman, arriving at Capital Hill, Canberra, for the foundation ceremony of the national capital on 12 March 1913

National Archives of Australia

Watch: Naming of the Federal Capital of Australia: The ceremony, 12 March 1913: [with commentary]

From the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, No. 236834

On 1 July 1914 the Commonwealth Government launches an international competition for the design of the Parliament House.

Documentation for the competition is prepared with the assistance of Walter Burley Griffin, but the competition is withdrawn almost immediately due to the outbreak of World War I in September 1914. [7] The Commonwealth Government, concerned about the delay in relocating the Seat of Government from Melbourne to Canberra, revives the competition in August 1916, but it is withdrawn again. The Government is forced to pay compensation to architects who have undertaken work for the competition. [8] As WB Griffin notes in 1923:

The war intervened, and after an interview between representatives of the Royal British Institute of Architects and the High Commissioner in London, the Government decided, in consequence of conditions arising out of the war, to postpone the completion of the competition until after the termination of the war. The competitors concerned were not consulted nor their acquiescence secured. [9]

In August 1923, after considerable debate, the Parliament agrees to build a provisional Parliament House:

In the accepted design for the lay-out of Canberra, the site for Parliament House is fixed on Camp Hill, practically at the apex of the triangle formed by Commonwealth-avenue, Federal-avenue, and the Molonglo River, within which triangle will be located the whole of the Government offices.

In proposing a provisional Parliament House, the Federal Capital Advisory Committee selected as a site for such building an area slightly below and to the north of the permanent site, holding that in such a position the provisional structure-assuming that the general scheme of development of the accepted plan is proceeded with-will front the Parliamentary gardens, which, in the course of time, will be beautified, so that the provisional building, placed as they suggest, will enjoy all the advantages of that amenity. It is also held that in such a position Parliament House would be conveniently situated with regard to the proposed administrative offices, and that Parliamentary business will not be interfered with by the building operations when the time comes to proceed with the erection of the permanent structure on Camp Hill. [10]

On 28 August 1923, the first sod for the provisional Parliament House building designed by John Smith Murdoch is turned by the Minister for Works and Railways, the Hon. PG Stewart (VFU; CP from 1920; C PROG from 1926, Member for Wimmera, Vic., 1919‒31):

The Parliament House now being commenced will therefore be a provisional building, but it will in no way be a mean structure. While its design is on simple and economic lines, it will be substantially constructed in brick and will be of a commodious and comfortable character, presenting a good appearance architecturally … The design includes garden courts, and conforms to the general conception of Canberra in the first stage as a garden city. [11]

An amateur collector, Henry Percival Moss, finds numerous Aboriginal stone artefacts in the sand ridges along the Molonglo River, including the site of the provisional Parliament House. [12]

Moss, who was responsible for establishing the first electricity supply in Canberra in 1914, was the Commonwealth's Chief Electrical Engineer until 1942. [13]

Temporary structures are built on Capital Hill to house workers employed on Commonwealth construction projects including the building of the provisional Parliament House. [14]

The temporary structures are removed in 1966, although the original concrete plan room constructed by Charles Scrivener in 1909‒10 is left intact and survives on the site to the present day. [15]

Pastoral scene on Capitol [ie Capital] Hill, Canberra [with] St. Andrew's Presbyterian Cathedral Church in mid‒distance, [showing sheep and mounted stockman, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

National Library of Australia

On 9 May 1927 the provisional Parliament House is opened by His Royal Highness the Duke of York (later to become King George VI). In his speech he states:

It is impossible not to be moved by the significance of today's events as a great landmark in the story of Australia. I say this not only because today sees the opening of a new Parliament House and marks the inauguration of a new capital city, but more because one feels the stirrings of a new birth, a quickened national activity, of a fuller consciousness of your destiny as one of the great self-governing units of the British empire. [16]

The building is designed by Chief Commonwealth Government architect, John Smith Murdoch, and is the first purpose-built home for the Australian Parliament. The design is considered modern for its time, featuring square and circular motifs in the architecture and furniture throughout the building. The construction workers and building materials come from all parts of Australia. [17] Yangar or Nangar, a Wiradjuri man also known as Jimmy Clements or 'King Billy', attends the opening with a friend, Jim Noble, after having walked barefoot for nearly a week from their home near Gundagai. The police try to turn them away because they are 'not properly attired', but the nearby crowd give support and they are allowed inside the building for the ceremony and Yangar is presented to the Duke and Duchess of York. They are the first Aboriginal elders to enter Parliament House. [18]

Proclamation, Opening of Parliament House, Canberra, 1927, (1927) Waterlow & Sons Limited, London

Gifts Collection, Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra ACT 

Opening of Federal Parliament at Canberra, 9 May 1927 , 1927‒28, by William Beckwith McInnes (1889‒1939)

Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra ACT

Watch: The official opening of [provisional Parliament House] Canberra by His Royal Highness the Duke of York: May 9th 1927: Paramount Special

From the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, No. 56926