A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



cial considerations prevented effect being given to this resolution until 1877, when a 

 Royal Commission was appointed, and instructions were given to prepare fresh designs 

 for the principal fa$ade facing the west, for an entrance hall between the two Chambers, 

 and for the foundations of the vestibule under the dome. The hall and vestibule were 

 immediately proceeded with, and were thrown open on the occasion of the assembling of 

 the Parliament in 1879. In March, 1881, a contract was entered into for the erection 

 of the west facade and dome ; but difficulties arising in connection with the stone to 

 be employed, the contract was abrogated, and a fresh one ratified with another builder. 

 The execution of this is being proceeded with at the present time, the material 

 employed being Stawell freestone ; and on the ist of October, 1886, thirty years after 

 the commencement of the edifice, Sir Henry Brougham Loch laid a memorial stone 

 forming the die of the right-hand central column of the portico. The whole will be, when 

 completed, one of the most magnificent buildings to be found in Australasia, and an 

 enduring monument of the ability of its architect. 



The area covered by the Parliament Houses is three hundred and twenty feet by 

 three hundred and twelve feet, forming part of a spacious reserve bounded by four 

 streets, and planted with trees and shrubs. A flight of one hundred and forty steps 

 gives access to a decastyle portico, one hundred and forty feet long, consisting of nine 

 bays. At each end of this, doorways lead to the offices, committee and other rooms, and 

 from the centre admission is obtained by three portals to the entrance vestibule, forty-four 

 feet square, above which will rise a double stone dome forty-six feet in diameter, to be 

 surmounted by a stone lantern, the summit of which will be two hundred and eighteen 

 feet above the ground. Immediately behind the vestibule is the Victoria Hall, eighty- 

 five feet long, forty-five wide, and fifty-four high, so that it approaches a double cube 

 in its dimensions. In the centre stands a full-length marble statue of the Oueen in her 



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robes of state, sculptured by the late Marshall Wood. This hall separates the two 

 Chambers, and the east end communicates with the library. Above the entrance to the 

 latter is a small gallery, supported by an elegant loggia, forming part of the line of 

 communication between the two Chambers, the gallery itself serving as a nexus between 

 the reporters' gallery in both Houses. The Legislative Council Chamber is on the 

 south side of the Victoria Hall, and has an extreme length of seventy-seven feet by forty 

 feet wide and a height of thirty feet. Its form and proportions are extremely agreeable 

 to the eye. The style of architecture followed throughout is the Corinthian, the 

 alcove, containing the President's chair, being correspondingly constructed and decorated. 

 The ceiling over the central portion is vaulted and coffered, and that over the end 

 portions is vaulted and domed. Ceiling lights cover the side galleries 

 and illuminate the main body of the Chamber. On the north side of the 

 Victoria Hall is the Legislative Assembly Chamber, which does not differ materially 

 in its dimensions from those of the Upper House. Its internal architecture is executed 

 in the Ionic order, and is covered with a coffered, coved and enriched ceiling. The 

 internal architecture of the Victoria Hall displays two orders, the Ionic having been 

 employed in the lower and the Composite in the upper portion ; the ceiling is deeply 

 coved, and pierced so as to form the clerestory which lights the building, while the 

 central panels are elaborately coffered, highly enriched and profusely ornamented. From 



