The five places in Parliament House you don't get to see - until now

From its grand marble foyer to both houses of parliament that serve as sparring grounds for politicians, the inside of Canberra's most famous building have become iconic, as it approaches its 30th anniversary since its opening on May 9.

However, behind the security doors or buried deep underground, there's a whole other side to Parliament House keeping the building ticking that very few people get to see.

There are many perks that come with being the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one of them being your own private garden.

"Not that many people get to come in here. About 99 per cent of the staff have never ever been in these courtyards," assistant director of landscape services Paul Janssens says.

"You don't even feel like you're in the middle of a capital city, let alone in the middle of Parliament House."

Out of the 17 courtyards in Parliament House, five of them are private gardens, with Speaker Tony Smith having ownership of one of them.

An oasis in the middle in parliament, the courtyard features both native and imported plants as well as a large water feature.

"The courtyard was designed with an Australian feel, with a timber verandah and a sandstone finish," Janssens says.

"Originally the courtyard only had native plants, but Joan Child - the first Speaker when parliament moved - didn't like the courtyard, and we came up with the design we have now, which include some exotic plants like maples and azaleas."

While the courtyard has been the home for 12 Speakers since Parliament House first opened in 1988, the courtyard was also home for several years to some unusual guests.

"Leo McLeay -the speaker after Child - liked lizards, and so he arranged to get a permit to have four lizards live here in the courtyard. We had two blue tongues and two shingle backs," Janssens says.

"We had to put stones in the pond from the bottom to the surface that if the lizards fell in, they would be able to get out."

While most of the action takes place above ground at Parliament House, just as much takes place below ground in the basement. Its subterranean maze is so big, street signs are needed in order to navigate around.

Among the many areas below parliament is the kitchen, with a large group of chefs working almost around the clock.

Executive chef David Learmonth and his team have arguably one of the most important jobs in the building: keeping politicians and their staffers well-fed during the long and stressful hours of sitting weeks.

"It doesn't matter if it's a muffin or a coffee or a buffet, it's all about keeping everyone happy," he says.

Parliament boasts an industrial-sized kitchen, catering everything from snacks, buffet dinners, cafes as well providing food for official functions or state dinners.

While Learmonth says services are always busy down in the kitchens, sitting weeks sees a huge increase in terms of catering.

"It skyrockets, the volumes can go up tenfold. It's taking care of the building occupants from the politicians, to their staffer, to anyone else that comes through for functions," he says.

"At federal budget time, we are at full capacity, so every room and every seat is full, and there's a massive demand on the building in general, but catering is always something that we can forecast."

Learmonth says with many politicians and staffers away from their families for long periods of time, comfort food plays a big role.

"We have a big span when it comes to the comfort food. We haven't had many unusual requests food, but the requests are mostly about how they want something or the time that they want it," he says.

While thousands of pieces of art hang the walls around Parliament House, deep below the ground there's a collection large enough to make up an entire art gallery.

Around one-third of all artworks owned by parliament is housed in its underground art-storage area while the rest of the works are rotated in use throughout the building.

Parliament House's Art Collection director Justine van Mourik says works are rotated every three years.

"If you look at an institution like the National Gallery, only about 5 per cent of the collection is on display, whereas we have about 65 per cent of our artworks on display," she says.

"We rely on them being used because there's not enough space to store all of them."

All of the artworks in the collection are required to be Australian, with the collection showcasing a who's who of Australian artists from around the country, with a mix of both portraits and landscapes.

Van Mourik says a majority of the collection is placed in the offices of all 226 MPs in parliament, with a hierarchy to the selection process.

"It starts with the Prime Minister and then works its way down. The number of artworks they can choose depends on how much they can fit in their office," she says.

"If you're the Prime Minister, the Speaker or the President of the Senate, it goes up to the full limit for their suite. A minister gets seven artworks and one craftwork, and if you're a backbencher, you get four artworks and one craftwork."

The art collection's director says artworks in the building often change locations.

"The artworks in the corridors are always changing, but in terms of the MPs suites, every time there's an election or there's a reshuffle or someone is kicked out under Section 44, you also have to change the artwork," she says.

If you've ever seen vision of a fiery debate during Question Time, or seen pictures of speeches in the Senate on the 6pm news, you have Michelle Swadling to thank.

Swadling is the broadcasting officer, helping to run all footage from both chambers of parliament to the people via a TV studio below the building.

"People often think that it's Channel 9's or 7's footage, but it's all our footage," she says.

"We basically bring parliament to the people. We're the ones who do the TV coverage and the media get that from us."

The Parliament House studio is no different to most TV news control rooms, helping to control the chamber's eight cameras.

While normally one person sits in the control room during most parliamentary sessions, it's all systems go when Question Time is on.

"It definitely gets pretty hectic during that period, and we have five people operating in the studio," Swadling says.

Swadling has been working at Parliament House for 17 years, and in that time, she says she's been able to be a witness to history and also bring it to the world.

"Being able to witness historic events is pretty amazing. We've been here for the apology to the Stolen Generation, more recently when Tim Wilson proposed to his partner in the chamber. That footage went viral and we got media requests for that footage from around the world," she says.

With thousands of people working in Parliament House, the furniture goes through considerable wear and tear, and when it needs repairing, they come to Eugene Zacharewicz for help.

Zacharewicz has worked for Parliament House for more than 10 years as an artisan furniture restorer inside parliament's underground workshop.

With a large portion of the chairs and tables in the building being heritage furniture, he says helping to repair them is a vital task.

"It's all about restoration and conservation work and maintaining the heritage furniture for years to come," Zacharewicz says.

"It can be extremely delicate. The furniture has been built to last, but we have to maintain it and not throw it away."

As part of the building, all the furniture in both chambers as well as parliamentary suites and the Prime Minister's office can't be replaced.

When cracks do start appearing in some of the chairs, Zacharewicz and his team work to get it back to the right condition.

"The furniture from that era of the '80s is all part of the building," he says.

"You can't make it as good as new, but you have to keep it as close as possible to how it would look now.

"There's never a dull day in here."