The house

The house in Red Hill, which is the official residence of the New Zealand High Commissioner, was built in 1939. In 1943, the year in which the first New Zealand diplomatic office opened in Canberra, the lease on the Mugga Way property was brought from a Mrs Violet Cook for the New Zealand Government at a cost of A£5500.

Initially a private home, the house was not designed with substantial official entertaining responsibilities in mind. It was therefore necessary to extend the original structure to meet these additional representational requirements. The most extensive renovations occurred in 1985/86. The New Zealand Ministry of Works and Development designed the extensions, which were carried out under supervision of a local architect, R Krastins.