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Parliament
House Melbourne c.1900
photograph
Pictorial Collection
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In 1901 a Commonwealth Parliamentary Library was established to serve
the newly formed Federal Parliament of Australia. In time, this Library
would evolve into the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library and the National
Library of Australia, but the drive to collect and document the Australian
identity was there from the beginning.
Between
1901 and 1927 the Federal Parliament of Australia occupied the Victorian
Parliament building in Spring Street, Melbourne. Although the Commonwealth
Government had access to the Victorian Parliamentary Library, it soon
became clear that provision had to be made for the time when the Commonwealth
Parliament had a separate building and therefore needed a separate library.
In
1901 the two houses of Parliament selected a Library Committee to be responsible
for the establishment of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Library.
Arthur Wadsworth, Head Librarian of the Victorian Parliamentary Library,
was appointed interim Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarian until such
time as the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, and the Parliament that
it served, found a permanent home.
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