Before Canberra was built, Melbourne was Australia’s temporary seat of government.
Australia’s Constitution established Melbourne as the provisional home of the federal Parliament while a permanent capital was planned and constructed. The arrangement reflected the rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney, the country’s two largest colonial cities. The compromise placed the new capital in New South Wales, but not too close to Sydney, while allowing Melbourne to serve temporarily.
After federation in 1901, the first federal Parliament met in Melbourne. Government departments and federal institutions operated there for more than two decades, even though Canberra had already been selected and its construction had begun.
The temporary arrangement ended on 9 May 1927, when Parliament opened in the Provisional Parliament House in Canberra. That building is now known as Old Parliament House. Melbourne therefore was not a rejected capital or merely an administrative centre; it was the constitutionally designated temporary seat until the planned capital was ready.