[2][3] The Victorian gold rush and population boom led calls for greater democracy and a home for political debate in Victoria.

It was not until April 1854 that Eastern Hill, the current Spring Street site, was formally agreed to due to ongoing disagreements over the best location.

[5] The exact sequence of events is unclear, with a number of architects and designs chosen and rejected in succession, with the final result possibly based on earlier work.

The Colony's newly arrived Chief Engineer (from Nov 1855 Commissioner of Public Works) Captain Pasley was asked to prepare a design by April 1854, possibly for a unicameral building, which may have been soon reworked into one for a bi-cameral Parliament, which had just been decided upon.

Bluestone was rejected as too dark and sombre, local granite as too expensive, even Carrara marble was considered, but freestone from Bacchus Marsh was chosen.

Their report of 1878 noted the progress on the construction of the Queens Hall and Vestibule (up to the base of the proposed dome), and that there was still no agreement on a suitable stone for the exterior.

Work in interiors progressed, with the imported Minton tiled floor of the Vestibule laid in 1888,[9] spelling out a quote from Proverbs 11:14: "Where no Counsel is the People Fall; but in the Multitude of Counsellors there is Safety".

Final elements like the ornate wrought-iron fence around the grounds and the elaborate cast-iron lamps and the bronze lions of the entry stairs were completed over the next year.

A contract for the north wing was let in 1890, with the dome to follow, but the boom years of the 1880s were over, and the subsequent economic depression of the 1890s meant no further work was started.

[5] From 1901 to 1927, Parliament House was the first home of the Commonwealth of Australia's Federal Government, since the new capital city envisaged in the Australian Constitution did not yet exist and there were long delays in finding a site and commencing construction.

[3] Several modern governments have expressed interest in completing Pasley and Kerr's original design by constructing the dome but were deterred by the substantial cost.

The idea was then abandoned by Kennett when he learned the original site of the sandstone mined for the building, now within Grampians National Park, could not be re-mined.