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Decorations on Tasmania's Parliament House were for the Federation celebrations

These decorations on Tasmania's Parliament House were for the Federation celebrations on 1 January 1901 – but the new State's parliamentarians might also have been celebrating having the building to themselves. The Legislative Council, established in 1825, and the House of Assembly, which first sat on 2 December 1856, shared the building with the Colony's Customs officers until 1903, when the final transfer of colonial Customs functions to the new Commonwealth was completed. Originally situated right on Hobart's Sullivan's Cove, this beautiful building was extended in 1940 to provide a new Chamber for the House of Assembly. The original section has served the Parliament for over 170 years, while the waterfront has gradually moved away from its front door, which now opens onto the gardens at Salamanca Place.