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Conversazione in the Exhibition Building
Title : Conversazione in the Exhibition Building Conversazione in the Exhibition Building
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Creator : Austin, G. B. H
Place Of Creation : [Melbourne]
Publisher : Sands & McDougall
Date of creation : [1901]
Additional Creator : Sands & McDougall Limited
Format : Ephemera
Contributor : State Library catalogue
Catalogue record
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Description :
The Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) opened the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia at an impressive ceremony at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne on 9 May 1901. Twelve thousand guests witnessed the swearing-in of the elected Members of Parliament.
Due to colonial rivalry, the opening ceremony for the inauguration of the Commonwealth was held in Sydney, and it was agreed that the first parliament would be held in Melbourne: one of the conditions of Federation was that the new Commonwealth Parliament would not sit within a 100 mile radius of Sydney.

Various events were held to celebrate the opening of the first Federal Parliament, including a 'conversazione' - a discussion of an intellectual character on art, literature or science - on the evening of 7 May in the Exhibition Building. Federal Parliament continued to sit in Victoria, at Melbourne's Houses of Parliament, for a further 27 years until the centre for Australian government and a new Parliament House were finally established in Canberra.

Subjects
Coverage year : 1901
Period : 1884-1913
Place : Melbourne (Vic.)
Further reading :
Australia. Parliament. Opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia: [order of proceedings], Melbourne: Govt. Pr., [1900]

Howie-Willis, Ian. Federation and Australia's parliamentary system: a pictorial history, Canberra: Published for the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia by the Australian Government Publishing Service, 1987

Irving, Helen, ed. The Centenary companion to Australian federation, Cambridge; Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Our invited guests: an official directory of the guests invited to Melbourne for the opening of the first Commonwealth Parliament of Australia, May 9th, 1901, Melbourne: Leslie W. Craw, [1901] (Melbourne: D.W. Paterson)

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