We opened up our Residence to the public this weekend as part of the “Windows on the World” contribution by the Diplomatic community to Canberra’s 100th anniversary celebrations this year.
Westminster House has been the residence of British High Commissioners to Australia since 1953. The fifties wasn’t generally acknowledged as one of the great periods of architecture, but it’s a handsome enough building in a fine location atop a hill adjacent to Parliament. There are beautiful views across Canberra’s low-rise suburbs to the Brindabella hills in the distance.
Places on the tour were snapped up as soon as they were publicised and we had a steady stream of tour groups coming through, with the help of Roland Bull and Daniel Nichola, graduate student volunteers from the Australian National University. Visitors had an opportunity to see the rooms where we do our official entertaining, and admire the British and Australian artworks and furniture.
They were also given an insight into the ways we use the house to support the High Commission’s work in Australia: hosting lectures; award ceremonies; business events and networking receptions; as well as a range of lunches and dinners to enable visiting British ministers and officials to meet Australian counterparts. Despite the somewhat formal surroundings, we always try to create a level of informality in which visitors can feel relaxed and speak freely, and we have had some fascinating discussions around our dining table.
As Canberra is an administrative capital rather than a major commercial centre, we don’t get the chance to do as many events to support business there as we did in my previous post in Singapore. So I make sure I am in the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne very regularly to do business events together with my Consuls General there.
Chef Mark Higgins made some delicious English fudge which we sold to visitors to raise funds for Mates4Mates, the Australian charity which supports disabled and wounded military veterans here.