Who doesn't love a good sticky beak once in a while, and they certainly don't come much better than this.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Parliament House has just opened an exhibition showing off some of the gifts given to the Australian Prime Minsters over the years, as well as jewellery given to members of parliament.
Since 1978, all gifts received by minsters have to be declared and valued, with the politicians given the opportunity to buy out the gifts if they want. Everything left behind is then stored by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Exhibition curator Katherine Nguyen said they searched the giant collection for pieces that were rare, noteworthy and also a little bit quirky.
"There's just so much stuff so we had an absolute ball. We just picked what we thought were the most beautiful and interesting objects, and then we went into researching the objects," she said.
"One of my favourite things is probably the Hiroshima peace stone – it was presented to John Howard by the mayor of Hiroshima.
"The stone used to be part of the pavement underneath the tram cars in Hiroshima and after the bomb went off, these were left aside and once they'd been declared as no longer radioactive, approximately 10,000 citizens in Hiroshima got together and they started to carve the image of the Goddess of Mercy into the stone... and the idea is while they were carving they were praying for peace."
Much of the collection is made up of portraits of some kind – including a rather cranky looking porcelain doll of Bob Hawke, and an impressive picture of Julia Gillard made entirely of coffee beans.
The rest ranges from the rare and valuable – like the keys to the city of Seoul, to the more random, like an intricate saddle gifted to Malcolm Fraser from Mexico and a space shuttle replica from NASA.
One cabinet also houses an Hermes Kelly handbag gifted to Hazel Hawke, Chanel and Hermes scarves gifted to Julia Gillard and a pink Hermes tie gifted to Kevin Rudd.
The jewellery cabinets house some serious bling, including some particularly stunning white gold Kailis drop pearl earrings that were gifted to Julia Gillard, plus a yellow gold and turquoise earring and necklace gifted from the Kingdom of Morocco.
The exhibition is on display until February 28. It's on level one – just go up the stairs on the left when you enter the marble foyer. Free entry.
