It was starting to look like a permanently derelict site, but plans are afoot at the iconic Lobby Restaurant to restore it to its former glory.
The distinctive pavilion overlooking the Rose Garden on King George Terrace outside Old Parliament House will soon re-open as a high-end restaurant and accompanying bar and eatery with outdoor seating.
Canberra marketing outfit The Mark Agency announced this week it was overseeing the revitalisation of "The Lawns of the Lobby" as "a flagship dining and multi-purpose events precinct".
The announcement comes after several years of weather-and-COVID-related delays; the site had been unoccupied since 2017, when the last restaurant operator left after a long-running stoush with the National Capital Authority, which oversees the Parliamentary Triangle.
And the new plans are not a million miles from the site's original intention when it opened in the 1960s.
The Parliamentary Triangle has always felt a forbidding kind of place after all the public servants have gone home.
But spare a thought for the hungry politicians of the 1960s, who faced a relatively barren terrain when they stepped outside the Parliament House looking for a meal.
There were elegant landscaped gardens and a newly filled ornamental lake, but nowhere nearby to eat or drink.
So when The Lobby opened - by then treasuer Billy McMahon - in 1968, it was destined for a place in many Canberrans' hearts.
The original plan to cater to tourist families was quickly derailed, when it became clear the venue was more suited to "expense-account executives and senior public servants", according to our coverage at the time.
A separate kiosk (eventually called Pork Barrel) was hastily built later that year, to ensure tourists could get their fill of meat pies, milkshakes and Devonshire Teas on Sundays.
Since then, political and business deals have been brokered, and generations of Canberrans have dined there for special occasions and countless milestones celebrations - including literally thousands of weddings - all against the backdrop of the heritage-listed Rose Gardens.
Within sight of the nearby Aboriginal Tent Embassy, The Lobby was even the scene of an infamous Australia Day protest in 2012, when then prime minister Julia Gillard had to be hastily escorted from the venue, losing a shoe as security guards led her through a crowd of around 200 protesters.
Five years later, after the restaurant had closed in 2017 but just weeks before the planned sale, a group from the Tent Embassy moved to "evict" the National Capital Authority from the site and forced their way in, occupying the site for a weekend in November.
Since then, the venue has been fenced off and fallen into disrepair, but on Monday, the site was filled with high-vis-clad workers and the deafening grind of drills and saws.
Mark Agency director Tristan Maddigan said the group's vision for the project had been obvious from the get-go.
"For us, it really just was the summation of all our different passions," he said.
"We're absolutely going back to its root. The Lobby was originally designed to be a place for the people, but when it was delivered, it became a fine dining venue, which wasn't sort of accommodating to tourists and to the local workers. Then the Pork Barrel emerged.
"For us, we are staying true to a multi sort of precinct that has different uses and is highly accessible, if you're just popping by to grab a panini on the way to work and a coffee, or you want to sit in the Rose Gardens with your family, or have a very special occasion."
He said the agency was relishing the challenge of the project.
"We definitely love the complexity in multiple-stakeholder engagements and looking at things which many would say are impossible to deliver," he said.
"We sort of like a bit of pain sometimes, and play a bit of a longer game.
"Canberra's really come of age over the last couple of decades ... This is something which has been around since the '60s. It is a multi-generational project, everyone has a story."
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