Canberra's Construction Accelerates
Even after the end of World War I little progress was made on development of the National Capital. Parliament continued to sit in Melbourne where the Federal Government departments were also located. Things were destined to change in July 1923 when Government accepted a motion that Parliament would meet in Canberra after the 1926 general elections. At last a deadline had been set.
To speed things up, it was decided to build a 'provisional' Parliament House rather than a permanent house.
The location of the provisional Parliament House was brought forward from where Griffin had placed it on Camp Hill to a flatter site to save money. Griffin protested that siting the provisional building in front of the site for the permanent building "would be like filling the front yard with outhouses".
The Prime Minister, Mr Bruce, did not attend the 'sod turning' ceremony for the provisional building for fear of being caught up in accusations of waste and extravagance. The building was completed and officially opened on 9 May 1927 by the Duke of York.
At this time, the infant capital also had two government office buildings - East and West blocks - to the right and left of the provisional Parliament House, a Lodge to be used as a residence for the Prime Minister when Parliament was sitting in Canberra, several hotels and guest houses, a railway connection to Queanbeyan (and thence Sydney), and the nucleus of suburbs at Eastlake (Kingston), Westridge (Yarralumla), Ainslie, Reid and Forrest, the Royal Military College, Duntroon, a small hospital, a dam, a power house and brickworks and construction camps for workers.
Some public servants had been transferred compulsorily from Melbourne to live and work in the infant National Capital.