Senate Opposition Party Room
A place for senators to work and play.
Location
Main floor
Originally the Senate Club Room and later the Senate Opposition Party Room, this spacious room was used by senators for meetings, preparing correspondence, collecting post, reading newspapers, socialising and even film nights. In the early years, the senators who didn't have their own offices made regular use of the desks and, from the 1950s, the soundproof telephone booths.
John Gorton addresses the press in the Senate Opposition Party Room on 9 January 1968 as newly elected leader of the Liberal Party following the death of Harold Holt. The next day he was sworn in as prime minister. Billy McMahon and Dudley Erwin sit beside Gorton. Photograph NAA: A1200, L68176
An attendant arranges the daily newspapers in the Senate Opposition Party Room, 1988. Photograph by Robert McFarlane, Department of the House of Representatives
Party meetings were a regular fixture in the Senate Opposition Party Room when parliament was sitting, 1988. Photograph by Robert McFarlane, Department of the House of Representatives
Plan your visit
Videos play on a large screen on a wall on the left.
This is a dimly lit room.
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