PEOPLE CENTRED HERITAGE - BRISBANE // Jacqueline Pearce on Queensland's Parliament House

I always love the opportunity to guide the conservation of early stone buildings. It is a privilege to be involved with these buildings and to see the completed conservation work is one of the most rewarding aspects of my career – Jacqueline Pearce, Associate Director.

Queensland’s Parliament House has been an influence on Jacqueline Pearce’s professional life from the beginning. The building was a prominent landmark situated at the front of the university she passed every day during her studies for her undergraduate degree in architecture and was the focus of one of her university projects.

The original structure was designed by colonial architect Charles Tiffin, the main wing along George Street was completed in 1869, but its form has evolved over the years. The Alice Street wing was added 30 years after the main building’s completion in 1899, while the sandstone porte cochère was constructed in 1981 to Tiffin’s original design.

Specialist heritage architect, Bruce Buchanan, whom Jacqueline would later go on to work for, documented a slight change in width to the Porte Cochere to accommodate vehicles and was the supervising architect through the construction.

“I was thrown into a wide range of heritage-related architectural projects from this time working with Bruce,” she recalls.

Later, Queensland’s Parliament House re-entered Jacqueline’s professional life in the form of an engagement to reinstate and conserve the sandstone facades along Alice Street and around the generous internal courtyard. “It was a major project and contributed to the consolidation of the heritage speciality in my architectural practice,” says Jacqueline. “It was a special opportunity to be involved in the conservation of the building, preparing the documentation, obtaining heritage approvals and working with stonemasons”. The experience led to other major commissions for substantial stone buildings, including St Mary’s churches in Ipswich and Warwick.

“Parliament House has threaded through the early development and been instrumental in my career as a heritage architect”

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