Accessibility

Historically, roads and carparks have so dominated development planning in the Parliamentary Zone that they now form the visual setting for most of the buildings.

The buildings themselves have been placed in widely separate locations resulting in a sense of isolation, a loss of unity, poor connections between buildings and ill-defined entrances.

Road systems have been developed with function rather than spatial quality in mind, and public spaces have never been linked to each other, particularly in the area north of King Edward Terrace.

Queen Victoria Terrace isolates Parliament House and Federation Mall from Old Parliament House. King Edward Terrace has become a major through-road, creating a potentially hazardous division between the northern and southern parts of the Zone. Visual access from Commonwealth and Kings Avenues is obscured and carparks and extensive road networks (dating from the period when new Parliament House was to be sited north of Capital Hill) mar the area. On weekdays, commuters quickly fill the best carparks for visitors. Public transport is not visitor-orientated.

The primary pedestrian system has been partly established but there is no hierarchy of pedestrian links. The only designated cycleway has been incorporated into the lake promenade – which is still incomplete. There is no path connecting the National Library of Australia in the west with the High Court of Australia and National Gallery of Australia to the east.