The Lodge
Encyclopedia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
in the national capital, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
. It is located on Adelaide Avenue, Deakin
Deakin, Australian Capital Territory
Deakin is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Deakin is named after Alfred Deakin, second prime minister of Australia...
. It is one of two official Prime Ministerial residences, the other being Kirribilli House
Kirribilli House
Kirribilli House is the official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister. The house is located at the far eastern end of Kirribilli Avenue in the harbourside suburb of Kirribilli...
, in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
History
The Lodge is a 40-room Georgian revival style mansion, located on 18,000 square metres (4.4 acres) of landscaped grounds. The origin of its name is unknown. It was built as a temporary measure, to be occupied by whoever was the Prime Minister "until such time as a monumental Prime Minister's residence is constructed, and thereafter to be used for other purposes". The Lodge was built over the period 1926–1927 at a cost of £28,319. The architects were Percy A. Oakley and Stanley T. Parkes of Melbourne; the builder was J.G. Taylor of Sydney. Interior design and furnishing were by Ruth Lane Poole of Melbourne, who had been doing the same for the Governor-General's residence, Government HouseGovernment House, Canberra
Government House, Canberra, commonly known as Yarralumla, is the official residence of the Governor-General of Australia. It is located in the suburb of Yarralumla, in the City of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory....
. The Lodge was intended as one of a set of three official residences, the others to be for the Speaker of the House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
and the President (speaker) of the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
, but the others were never built.
The first Prime Minister to live in The Lodge was Stanley Bruce
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...
. He and his wife Ethel (they had no children) moved in on 4 May 1927, five days before the official opening of the then Parliament House
Old Parliament House, Canberra
Old Parliament House, known formerly as the Provisional Parliament House, was the house of the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988. The building began operation on 9 May 1927 as a temporary base for the Commonwealth Parliament after its relocation from Melbourne to the new capital, Canberra,...
on 9 May. When he was Leader of the Opposition, Bruce's successor James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
(1929-32) had objected to the cost of running The Lodge and, true to his word, he and his wife lived at the Hotel Canberra
Hotel Canberra
The Hotel Canberra, also known as Hyatt Hotel Canberra is in Yarralumla, near Lake Burley Griffin and Parliament House, in Canberra. It was built to house politicians when the Federal Parliament moved to Canberra. It was constructed by the contractor John Howie between 1922-1925. Originally...
(now the Hyatt Hotel) during his Prime Ministership. However the next Prime Minister Joseph Lyons
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
chose The Lodge, and all subsequent Prime Ministers have used it as their primary place of residence, except for:
- Ben ChifleyBen ChifleyJoseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
(1945-49), who preferred the Kurrajong Hotel, where many Labor politicians of the era stayed, and where he later died. - John HowardJohn HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
(1996-2007), who stayed at The Lodge when he was in Canberra for parliamentary or government business, but lived primarily at Kirribilli HouseKirribilli HouseKirribilli House is the official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister. The house is located at the far eastern end of Kirribilli Avenue in the harbourside suburb of Kirribilli...
, Sydney. The latter is a residence maintained for the official use of Prime Ministers when they need to perform official duties and extend official hospitality in Sydney. - Julia GillardJulia GillardJulia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
(2010-present) became Prime Minister on 24 June 2010 after the parliamentary Labor PartyAustralian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
decided to replace Kevin RuddKevin RuddKevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
as leader. Gillard declared that she would not move into The Lodge until she had "fulsomely earned the trust of the Australian people to be prime minister" at an election; instead, she remained living in her home in Altona in MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and her flatApartmentAn apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in Canberra. Following the 2010 election at which Gillard led her party into minority governmentMinority governmentA minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
, she moved into The Lodge on 26 September 2010.
Of the three Australian Prime Ministers who have died in office, the only one to die at The Lodge was John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
in 1945.
Renovations
The building's interior has an American Colonial character, with stained wall panelling and exposed upper floor beams under the ceiling. The ground floor entrance opens into an entrance hall. To the left of the entrance is the dining room and service wing, which includes staff quarters. To its right are the formal reception rooms- a drawing room, study and sitting room/library (originally intended as billiards room). The staircase rises to a landing which contains office space for the Prime Minister's spouse, then divides into two flights leading to a hall opening onto a loggiaLoggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
above the entrance. On the first floor are the private apartments and guest accommodation, consisting of a study, six bedrooms, sitting room, a drawing room and a billiards/games room.
When Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
became Prime Minister in 1939, his family moved into The Lodge. Pattie Menzies
Pattie Menzies
Dame Pattie Maie Menzies GBE was the wife of Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies.-Biography:...
undertook a thorough makeover of the residence. First, the makeshift children’s bedrooms on the front balcony, built for the large Lyons family, were removed. Worn carpets and furnishings were replaced and kerosene heaters installed.
The Lodge also underwent some heavy renovation in the 1960s. When Harold Holt
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt, CH was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia.His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December 1967 when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.Holt spent 32 years...
was in office, his wife Zara Holt
Zara Bate
Dame Zara Kate Bate DBE was an Australian fashion designer and wife of the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt....
had a major makeover of the Lodge. All the curtains were discarded, and all the carpets ripped up. The floors were recovered with a dramatic emerald green carpet. The tall arched windows of the entrance were draped with crisp white curtains. A flagpole flying the Australian flag
Flag of Australia
The flag of Australia is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Flag in the canton , and a large white seven-pointed star known as the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter...
was installed on the staircase landing. Most controversial of all was the extensive work needed to transform the dark varnished Tasmanian mountain ash panelling of the walls of all three rooms. Once the stripping was completed, the walls were coated with a white gloss paint. These bright walls remained the backdrop of formal photographs at The Lodge for the next five prime ministers.
John Gorton
Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH , Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.-Early life:...
moved in, Bettina Gorton
Bettina Gorton
Bettina Gorton, Lady Gorton was the American-born wife of John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia 1968-71.Bettina Edith Brown was born in Bangor, Maine, USA, in about 1915. Her father Arthur A. Brown was the president of an American bank in Cuba. He died when she was two years old and her...
's practical abilities in farm repairs were soon called on to deal with maintenance issues resulting from some of Zara Holt’s more impractical decorating achievements. Repairs to a leaking ceiling that threatened the silk wallpaper in the ‘Swan Suite’, and toning down some of the more vibrant colours in furnishings and finishes, were among the work she had done. But Bettina Gorton’s lasting imprint on The Lodge was in the grounds. During the Gortons' tenure, a wall was built surrounding The Lodge, both as a security measure and to give some privacy from the encroaching traffic of Adelaide Avenue on the eastern side of the residence. Once the wall was completed, Bettina Gorton developed a garden of Australian native plants. The Gortons also installed a swimming pool and a courtyard in the north east corner of the grounds.
Major work was also carried out in 1977-78 to upgrade the kitchen and staff quarters and to extend the main dining room. The Frasers
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
occupied The Lodge nine years after Zara Holt’s refurbishment, and they found the house drab and unwelcoming. The once-glamorous wallpaper was peeling from the guestroom ceiling, and numerous cracks had appeared in the bathroom walls. Tamie Fraser
Tamie Fraser
Tamie Fraser AO is the wife of Malcolm Fraser, who held office as Prime Minister of Australia between 1975 and 1983. -Early life:...
thought the layout of the house was inefficient, the service area inadequate and, like every occupant since 1927, found the dining room too small for adequate official entertaining. Among the visitors entertained at The Lodge by the Frasers were the Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
, and then the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
in 1977.
The first task Tamie Fraser undertook was to supplement the surviving settings of the 1927 white and gold Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton
The Royal Doulton Company is an English company producing tableware and collectables, dating to 1815. Operating originally in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries, where it was a latecomer compared to Spode, Wedgwood and Minton...
dinner service. It had a special pattern that had been designed by Ruth Lane Poole in 1926 featuring the Prime Ministerial Monogram. The Monogram (consisting of the interwoven letters 'P' and 'M'), also appears carved into the backs of the dining room chairs. Interestingly, the man who handled Tamie Fraser’s order in 1977 had arranged for the manufacture of the original set fifty years earlier. Though this expensive purchase created a furore, it did not deter Tamie Fraser from battling to secure major renovations of the service wing and dining room in 1978. She chose architect Guilford Bell to oversee this remodelling and to redecorate the main rooms. Ten years after Zara Holt imposed her extravagant decorating scheme on The Lodge, Tamie Fraser returned the main reception rooms to ‘classic colours and style’, with cream painted walls and a white Berber carpet.
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
was Prime Minister. The most notable feature of the work done by Hawke's wife Hazel
Hazel Hawke
Hazel Hawke, AO is the former wife of Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia 1983–91. They divorced after he left the prime ministership. She worked in social policy areas, and was an excellent amateur pianist and a patron of the arts...
during her eight years at The Lodge was her work for The Australiana Fund
The Australiana Fund
The Australiana Fund is an independent fundraising organisation responsible for the purchase and maintenance of artworks in the four Official Residences of the Governor-General of Australia and the Prime Minister of Australia.- History :...
and in her sympathetic restoration of the building’s interior. The Australiana Fund
The Australiana Fund
The Australiana Fund is an independent fundraising organisation responsible for the purchase and maintenance of artworks in the four Official Residences of the Governor-General of Australia and the Prime Minister of Australia.- History :...
, started by Tamie Fraser, used donations to collect Australian art and furniture for the four official residences – Government House
Government House, Canberra
Government House, Canberra, commonly known as Yarralumla, is the official residence of the Governor-General of Australia. It is located in the suburb of Yarralumla, in the City of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory....
and The Lodge in Canberra, and Admiralty House
Admiralty House, Sydney
Admiralty House is the official Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia. It is located in the suburb of Kirribilli, on the northern foreshore of Sydney Harbour . This large, Italianate, sandstone mansion occupies the tip of Kirribilli Point...
and Kirribilli House
Kirribilli House
Kirribilli House is the official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister. The house is located at the far eastern end of Kirribilli Avenue in the harbourside suburb of Kirribilli...
in Sydney. Hazel Hawke was known for continuing this collection by finding and arranging for the restoration of The Lodge’s original Australian-made Beale piano
Beale Piano
-Establishment of piano importing business:Octavius Beale established a business to import pianos and sewing machines in Sydney in 1884. He imported German upright pianos, of which a few survive today - these are known as "Hapsburg Beale"...
. The piano, chosen for The Lodge by Ruth Lane Poole so that it fitted the original designs for the drawing room, had been used in the Canberra School of Music as a practice piano after it had been removed from The Lodge. Hawke also fitted out a room on the mezzanine landing of The Lodge as her office, which she remembered as her favourite room where she spent most of her time.
When the Keatings
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
moved into The Lodge in 1991, they made some changes to the furnishings, moving the massive William Rojo bookcase provided by the Australiana Fund into storage and providing the 'Brown Room' with new sofas. Unlike many of the earlier prime ministerial families, the Keatings preferred to treat The Lodge as a family home and did not often entertain official visitors there.
Although the Howards
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
generally stayed at Kirribilli House in Sydney, this did not prevent them from improving The Lodge. From 2000 to 2005, the reception areas of the residence were progressively refurbished with the assistance of interior designer Mary Durack. The two main reception rooms, the Morning Room and the Drawing Room, were redecorated in a complementary theme rather than as two distinctive areas, as was previously the case. The dining room and the foyer were also refurbished.
Howard's successor Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
returned to tradition by living at The Lodge.
In October 2011 the Department of Finance and Deregulation announced refurbishment and repair work is required for The Lodge which is estimated will take 18 months to complete. Works considered as necessary and urgent include: roof, insulation, guttering, plumbing, removing hazardous material, heating and cooling, complete electrical rewiring and replacing the AFP
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
guard houses. In an interview with ABC News, Special Minister of State Gary Gray said the total cost would run into the millions of dollars.
Security
The Lodge maintains high security around the residence. The residence has many security features in protecting the Prime Minister, and their family, including the use of many security cameras, biometric security, high fences, shatter-proof windows and a safe room.External links
- The Lodge
- National Library of Australia Photographs of The Lodge, external and internal, in 1927. Retrieved 30 March 2011
- Official site of The Prime Minister of Australia