Gardens
The Parliamentary Gardens were designed as an extension of the building, retaining a formality in keeping with it. Originally, the rear courtyards of the building were open to the gardens through a colonnade, Murdoch’s intention being that members and Senators should be able to use the gardens as an integral part of the building. Later this intention was lost, as extensions were added to the back part of the building to provide more offices.
They are enclosed by hedges and were planted with trees. In both cases they were divided into four quadrants, with two being occupied by rose gardens and the remaining two by recreational facilities. On the Senate side these are tennis courts and a cricket pitch and on the Representatives' side, they are tennis courts and a bowling/croquet green. In the 1970s much of the Representatives' gardens were covered by an extension to the building, but this has now been removed and the gardens restored.
The rose gardens contain a wide variety of specimens, including many old roses and roses donated by prominent Australians and overseas bodies and individuals. Much of the inspiration (and organisation) for this came from the Usher of the Black Rod and later Clerk of the Senate, Robert Broinowski, and the gardens were designed by Rex Hazlewood. They also played major roles in the development of the National Rose Gardens on the other side of King George Terrace.
Read more about this topic: Old Parliament House, Canberra
Famous quotes containing the word gardens:
“It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Thou didst create the night, but I made the lamp.
Thou didst create clay, but I made the cup.
Thou didst create the deserts, mountains and forests,
I produced the orchards, gardens and groves.
It is I who made the glass out of stone,
And it is I who turn a poison into an antidote.”
—Muhammad, Sir Iqbal (1873–1938)
“Have We not made the earth as a cradle
and the mountains as pegs?
And We created you in pairs,
and We appointed your sleep for a rest;
and We appointed night for a garment,
and We appointed day for a livelihood.
And We have built above you seven strong ones,
and We appointed a blazing lamp
and have sent down out of the rain-clouds water cascading
that We may bring forth thereby grain and plants,
and gardens luxuriant.”
—Qur’an, “The Tiding” 78:6-16, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)