Old Parliament House

Located on North Terrace ‘Old Parliament House’ is one of the most significant historic buildings in South Australia. For a number of years it had been unused and its condition was deteriorating with the passage of time.

A project was initiated to carry out essential conservation works and make the accommodation provided within the building accessible to and usable by the adjacent Parliament House to address identified shortage of meeting rooms and offices.

As a result of this project much of the original building fabric has been conserved and returned to pristine condition and where necessary new contemporary elements have been inserted to facilitate accessibility to and connectivity between the multiple levels within Old Parliament House and to Parliament House itself.

A new ‘entry’ from North Terrace has been created providing a second major entry point to the Parliament House complex which is compliant with disability access codes, provides convenient access for members and parliamentary staff and is a gateway for visiting school groups.

The refurbished building incorporates a high level of both electronic security and acoustic privacy to meeting rooms and offices.

The building works included replacement of all services incorporated within the existing building fabric in a manner which did not impact on the original heritage fabric and brought the spaces up to date in terms of communications and recording technology.

The redevelopment includes a landscaped courtyard space retaining the existing century old palms and in turn provides an outdoor gathering space for parliamentary functions.