Invitation to the ceremony of laying the foundation stones of the commencement column at the federal capital

On 12 March 1913, a crowd witnessed the ceremonial naming of the new Australian federal capital city, Canberra. A monument comprising six foundation stones representing each state had been constructed by Loveridge and Hudson, a company of builders and quarry masters from Sydney, at a cost of £263. The Governor-General, Lord Denman, laid the first stone using a trowel made of gold with an ivory handle. It was initially intended that above the foundation stones would be a ‘commencement column’ 27 feet (8.23 metres) high. The column was never built, although the six foundation stones still remain. In 1988, they were moved to their present site at the top of Federation Mall, near the front of Parliament House.

This invitation to the ceremony of laying the foundation stones of the Commencement Column at the federal capital was sent to Henry Maitland Rolland, Supervising Architect in the then Federal Capital Territory, under the Department of Home Affairs’ Director-General of Works. It is part of a group of his personal papers now held at the National Archives.