The Chifley Experience at Hotel Kurrajong

Amble through Australia’s parliamentary history with a visit to the Hotel Kurrajong and Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra

The Chifley Experience at Hotel Kurrajong

We’re staying in the Chifley Room at the heritage-listed Hotel Kurrajong Canberra, part of the Collection by TFE Hotels. Why the Kurrajong? Well, Chif was ensconced in the hotel for 11 years, even preferring its simple comforts to the PM’s official residence at The Lodge.

Opened in December 1926, the Kurrajong was originally called Hostel No. 2. (Interestingly, prohibition in Canberra meant that from 1911 until 1928 the city was ‘dry’. The hostel became a hotel later.)

When Parliament House opened in 1927, Hostel No. 2 provided convenient accommodation to politicians while Parliament was sitting.

Today it’s a stylish hotel with an imposing entrance – much like its sister building Hostel No. 1 (where mostly conservative party members stayed), now the Canberra Hyatt.

Old Parliament House architect, John Smith Murdoch, designed both hostels, making the Kurrajong an ideal launching pad if you wish to visit the newly named Museum of Australian Democracy (née Old Parliament House) just a short walk away.

Stepping into history

Upon arrival at the Kurrajong we’re given delicious smoke-flavoured whiskeys, Chifley’s favourite tipple. This is all part of the hotel’s Chifley Package, which includes daily breakfast for two and a $50 food and beverage credit to spend each night in Chifley’s Bar & Grill.

The former PM’s suite is surprisingly humble, with sombre wood panelling and cosy dimensions. There’s nothing palatial about it all.

Indeed, can you believe our wartime prime minister shared a bathroom with other guests? I love the idea of Chifley stepping out of the bathroom and saying to a fellow Kurrajong guest, “You might want to give that a minute.”

The room these days is artfully curated with a pipe, threadbare homburg hat, an old suitcase and some first edition books tied up with a ribbon.

However, unlike the former PM, we don’t have to share a bathroom as the suite now includes a stylish one and there’s king-sized bed. Eerily, I still feel Chif’s presence in the room. Writer’s imagination, perhaps.

A heritage dining experience

As we sit at the bar and sip deliciously sour Barton Breeze cocktails, the Kurrajong appears to be the perfect amalgam of modernity and Art Deco glamour, with bespoke furniture and organic Art Nouveau flourishes.

We adore the hand-carved mantel and austere black-and-white portraits of former prime ministers lining the corridors. It’s vintage heaven for heritage travel buffs.

That evening we eat at Chifley’s Bar & Grill. Enclosed by a glassed-in terrace overlooking the hotel gardens, the restaurant retains a sense of heritage with its luxurious decor and opulent leather dining chairs.

The menu offers an impressive array of high-end steaks, but at the insistence of executive chef, Saju Rajappan, we choose the seafood grill for two (good value at $100), with Atlantic salmon, market fish, prawns, scallops, roasted kipfler potatoes and the Kurrajong salad.

It’s so generous we’re unable to finish it. The wine list is quite reasonable, with the house wine (which we choose) an egalitarian $43. There’s also an express lunch menu for the numerous busy parliamentarians who stay here and a budget brekkie special for $18.

Tracing Chifley’s footsteps to Old Parliament House

The following morning we breakfast on the sunny terrace with bobbing, yellow-eyed currawongs pecking at motes of bread on the lawn. Chef Saju says the resident courtyard magpies are called Kevin and Julia after the former PMs and they flit around like they own the place.

Departing the historic hotel, we begin the newly minted Chifley Walk. This leafy 700 metre amble traces the footsteps of the former Labor PM on his daily walk from the Hotel Kurrajong to Old Parliament House, with a tour guide to meet you on arrival at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD).

This bespoke walk helps visitors deepen their understanding of Old Parliament House and Chifley himself.

Along the way are life-sized statues of Chifley (then treasurer) and Curtin as if in mid-conversation (captured by photographer Don Stephens in 1945 and sculptured in bronze by Peter Corlett in 2011) as they walked from the hotel to Parliament House each day.

Here is the perfect opportunity for a selfie and it only takes 15 minutes for us to arrive on the steps of the MoAD.

Visiting the Museum of Australian Democracy

Old Parliament House reminds me of a wedding cake, with its stripped classical design, clean lines, recurring architectural motifs and cavernous, light-filled spaces.

For many, it’s the Parliament House they grew up with. It’s where Gough Whitlam said nothing would save the Governor-General and where Norman Gunston inserted himself into the press scrum. Our effusive guide for the day shares insights into Chifley’s world at work.

We even get to visit secret rooms and are steered into the prime minister’s office, with its remarkably unpretentious bathroom that’s like something from a caravan park.

We soon see in Bob Hawke’s (the last PM at Old Parliament House) bathroom drawer, left open for the public just as he left it, complete with hair dye for the Silver Bodgie’s touch-ups.

Moving onto the press rooms and we get a real sense of how the building was cramped and overcrowded. We love the reel-to-reel tape recorders here and coffee cups with cigarette butts discarded in them.

Other nice touches are beige jackets on the backs of chairs and bottles of Liquid Paper beside antiquated typewriters. You don’t need to imagine the din either, as there’s an authentic soundtrack while you explore the spaces. At the tour’s end we enjoy a coffee in the courtyard.

Concluding Chifley’s Walk

That afternoon we visit the new Parliament House. This grand, boomerang-shaped building replaced the outdated and overcrowded Old Parliament House in 1988. More like a bunker than a wedding cake, the idea was Australia’s citizens could stand over its representatives.

Here you’ll find several excellent free tours and we choose the ‘Heart of the House’ tour. It offers an overview of the architecture, one of the chambers, and political highlights at Parliament House.

At its end we’re led to a gallery of portraits of former PMs. Interestingly, Julia Gillard’s portrait is of her head and shoulders only. As our guide explains, “It was a conscious choice on her part as she was constantly frustrated by the endless commentary about what she was wearing.”

Other portraits are sombre and austere, but Gough’s portrait has a more creative and apt whiff of the Archibalds about it.

At last we find Ben Chifley’s portrait, which also seems different from the others. He doesn’t stare at you with a haughty authority like Fraser or Keating, and his body language is almost self-effacing. But what would you expect from a former train driver from Bathurst?

Live like Chifley

Former prime minister Ben Chifley resided at Hotel Kurrajong Canberra throughout his parliamentary career and you too can live like Chifley with overnight accommodation in the Chifley Room.

There’s daily breakfast for two, a $50 food and beverage credit to spend daily in Chifley’s Bar & Grill, and a welcome whisky for two on arrival. ‘Chifley’s Walk’ is a 700-metre self-guided walk between the Hotel Kurrajong and Old Parliament House that ends in an exclusive 45-minute guided tour of the MoAD.

The walk is held every morning at 10am and follows the same route Chifley took on his way to work via what is today the National Circle, Walpole Crescent, and King George Terrace.

Available exclusively for guests of Hotel Kurrajong for a nominal $20 fee for adults (or included as part of the hotel’s Chifley Experience package), it offers rare insight into the man behind the PM.