Canberra is recognised as one of the w orld s most successful examples of planned city development. In sixty years it has grown from a collection of surveyors tents to Australia s largest inland city. Because it has developed so rapidly most of Canberra s 200,000 citizens were born elsewhere. This book attempts to capture some aspects of life in Canberra the buildings, the seasons, people at work and play, the countryside so that residents of the national capital can give an impression of its moods and lifestyle to relatives and friends far away. Designed by ANU Graphic Design/ Stephen Cole
This book was published by ANU Press between 1965 1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy.
First published in Australia 1978 Printed in Singapore for the Australian National University Press, Canberra by Toppan Printing Co., Singapore The Australian National University 1978 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Canberra ISBN 0 7081 1296 X 1. Canberra Description. I. Gibson, George, ed. 919.4 7[1] United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, and Africa: Eurospan Ltd, 3 Henrietta St, London WC2E 8LU, England North America: Books Australia, Norwalk, Conn., USA Southeast Asia: Angus & Robertson (S.E. Asia) Pty Ltd, Singapore Japan: United Publishers Services Ltd, Tokyo Designed by ANU Graphic Design, Stephen Cole
CANBERRA George Gibson, Editor
Canberra without its lake would be like London without the Thames not thirsty, but with its individuality sadly diluted. Lake Burley Griffin named after the Chicago architect who in 1911 won an international competition for the design of Australia s capital provides the setting for some of the city s most unusual, but characteristic, features. Looking rather like a modern-day Parthenon, the National Library of Australia, above, graces the southern shore, its white marble columns lending the building an aspect of serenity in keeping with its function. Facing the library, the Captain Cook Memorial water jet gushes skyward from the centre of the lake, and further to the east the carillon towers over little Aspen Island, top right. Other islands, right, are Springbank, a favoured picnic spot, and Spinnaker.
One of the largest free-standing bell-towers in the world, the carillon was a gift from the British government to the Australian people to mark the 50th anniversary of Canberra on 12 March 1963. Its 53 bells range in weight from less than 7 kg to more than 6 tonnes, and were cast by John Taylor and Sons, of Loughborough, England, specialists in this craft for centuries. Right: Getting ready for a regatta at Canberra Yacht Club, in Lotus Bay.
As recently as 1963 most of the area covered by Lake Burley Griffin was a shallow valley watered only by the Molonglo River. Scrivener Dam changed the picture unbelievably: Australia s largest inland city found itself surrounding 35 km of lakeshore. Trees, lawns, gardens and picnic areas were established and the lake now fills an important ornamental and recreational role. Regular cruises from the terminal at Acton, left, make it a pleasant way to tour the sights as well.
This huge neo-byzantine edifice at the foot of Mt Ainslie houses one of the w orld s most extensive and skilfully presented military museums. Completed in 1971, the Australian War Memorial draws nearly three-quarters of a million visitors a year, many returning again ar?d again for the sheer immensity of the exhibition can command not hours, but days of interest. At the head of the courtyard between the arcaded galleries bearing the Roll of Honour stands the domed Hall of Memory, with its impressive statue, stainedglass windows and mosaic-covered walls; a shrine of remembrance for the 102,000 men and women who died serving Australia in the two world wars and in earlier and later conflicts.
In its half-century as the official residence of Australia s Governors-General, this discreetly elegant house has accommodated many a famous guest and witnessed many a ceremonial occasion. Here new governments are commissioned, and new Acts of Parliament receive royal assent. Here the credentials of ambassadors are accepted, and members of the Royal Family, Heads of State and other distinguished visitors are entertained. Before the governm ent bought it in 1911, Yarralumla, as the house and property were then called, belonged to the Campbell family of Duntroon. The original name, from an Aboriginal word meaning Where the cry comes back from the m ountain, was then taken for the South Canberra suburb which grew up around Government House.
As the national capital and seat of government, Canberra must also perform the role of diplomatic centre, and provide hospitality to those nations which have established formal relations with Australia. Of these there are now more than sixty, and foreign diplomats and their families make up a significant part of a widely cosmopolitan community. Equally, the buildings erected by these governments to accommodate the ambassadors or (in the case of Comm onw ealth representatives) high com m issioners, and their chancelleries, have contributed richly to the city s architectural diversity. One of the latest to be completed is shown here: the Embassy of Poland, in Turrana Street, Yarralumla...
... and nearby one of the most distinctive: the Embassy of Thailand, on the corner of A delaide Avenue and Empire Circuit. Indeed, conveniently for the sightseer, most of the diplomatic missions and residences are located in Yarralumla and Red Hill, with a few also in their linking suburbs, Deakin and Forrest. There are more than twenty on Red H ill s Mugga Way alone, while many of the more recently constructed are to be found in the section of Yarralumla bounded by State Circle, Adelaide Avenue and Empire Circuit, near the lake s southern shore. Two im portant exceptions are the USSR, in Canberra Avenue, Griffith, and the Chinese People s Republic on the Federal Highway one of the few embassies situated north of the lake.
Canberra reflects a diversity of influences. Above: Norma Redpath s fountain dominates the forecourt of the Treasury. But the day of reckoning seems far from this serene corner of The Australian National University campus, right. The ANU has earned an international reputation for research in several fields, among them astronomy: opposite, top right, Mt Stromlo Observatory. Left: The headquarters of the Australian Academy of Science; and below, the Old Canberra Inn, restored and plying its trade again a century later.
Canberrans refer to their city centre the streets lined with shops and offices which radiate from City Hill simply as Civic. Below: Melbourne Building (1928). Right: Garema Place.
Even the children go willingly to shop if it s in Civic! For there, in Petrie Plaza, stands Canberra s magnificent old carousel, top. As well as a m ultitude of street-front stores, boutiques and restaurants, Civic boasts three large, under-one-roof shopping complexes: the Monaro Mall, the Boulevard above and Canberra Arcade. Right: Shops at Ainslie, an inner suburb.
Civic was the first, and is still the capital s principal business centre, despite the rapid growth of the self-contained New Towns with their own large shopping complexes. Colourful Woden Plaza above in the ACT s first New Town, and Belconnen Mall in the second, are among the most modern and extensive retail malls in Australia. The pattern of NewTowns a third is being developed at Tuggeranong, south of Woden relieves inner Canberra of big-city growth pressures and enables the preservation of large areas of countryside within the urban perimeter.
Large offices are being established in the New Towns and some nine thousand people are employed in Woden Town Centre. The Canberra plan thus decentralises not only community services but work opportunities too: the New Towns are becoming independent of their parent city. But most government departments are still housed within or close to the Parliamentary Triangle, as in the Administrative Building above seen across the lawns in front of Parliament House, and the Trade Offices right. Foto: Heidi
Being built among hills, but not on them, Canberra is a city of splendid panoramic views. Top: from Capital Hill the eye travels straight up Kings Avenue to the tall column of the Australian-American Memorial. Above right: Looking back the other way, from Mt Pleasant towards Kings Avenue Bridge. Left: Part of North Canberra from Mt Ainslie.
i The prevalent image of Canberra is one of newness: after all. the city was only founded in 1913. So it comes as a surprise to discover that here are some of the oldest buildings standing in Australia, and still in use. The churches, for example, are among the most modern, and the most venerable, in the land. First of the latter is St John the Baptist s. which was founded by Robert Campbell of Duntroon in 1841 with a gift of 1,000 and 40 ha of land. The Anglican church stands peacefully among trees and gravestones near the corner of Anzac Parade and Constitution Avenue, looking more like a scene in an English village than one in the young capital of a young country.
The seasons are characteristic, clearly defined; the light is clear; nature s year-long procession of changing colours emerges whenever and wherever you pause to look. The myriad varieties of trees; the weaving lakeshore; the masses of flowers and shrubs in gardens public and private strange how relatively recent it all is. And the great backdrop of the Brindabella Ranges sets this Canberra scene, as it did those before it. Q
Yes, trees. You expect monuments, memorials and national institutions in a capital and you get them in Canberra. But more than all of these, Canberra is trees: ten million or more have been planted in a continuous program over sixty years. Before then, incredible though it now seems, the area was largely barren grazing land, except for the wooded hillsides. Now hundreds of varieties, both native and imported, fill the parks and reserves and line the streets every one of them. Walnuts from Arizona, olives from the Mediterranean, deodars from India, pepper trees from Peru, silk trees from China, elms from America, and of course Australia s own wattles and gums Canberra s arboreal, like its human, population is representative of many nations.
In Canberra the seasons paint the city with impressionistic abandon. Each bestows its own charm, each offers a lure to poet, painter and photographer: spring, with its exotic blooms and blossoms; summer, when eucalypt, wattle, kurrajong, pine, cypress, fir. spruce, cedar, and broad-leafed evergreens spread their shade widest: autumn for some, with tones of red, yellow and rich brown blazing on hawthorn, oak, maple, ash. poplar, elm, liquidambar and birch, even more spectacular than spring: and winter, too, when often against a background of snow-capped mountains, naked branches print their delicate tracery and evergreens stand in solid majesty.
Have you ever seen a sugar glider at close quarters? asks a booklet issued by the Department of the Capital Territory s conservation people. If not, then here s your chance. And if you think a sugar glider is a new line in teaspoons, perhaps you should accept their invitation and go for a ramble in the ACT s nature reserves. They are Canberra Nature Park, comprising Black Mountain, Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura within the metropolitan area, and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, 40 km south of the city. There you may see not only the sugar glider, but a variety of other animals such as the kangaroo above, and at Tidbinbilla the koala right, the corroboree frog opposite, above and the nocturnal pigmy glider below, smallest member of the possum family to which friend sugar, too, belongs.
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The ACT is a land of rivers. King of them is the Murrumbidgee, one of Australia s longest waterways. Early settlers esteemed the river, and built gracious homes upon its banks. Of these the oldest and most elegant survivor is Lanyon, begun in 1835: top left, the homestead; right, gate to the milking sheds; above, looking tow ards the M urrum bidgee; opposite, the verandah. A self-contained village in its heyday, with dairy, butchery, bakery, smithy and convict jail Lanyon is now national property and open to the public.
Sfephen Cole
Nearly two-thirds of the Capital Territory is unsuitable for urban development. But with its mountains and forests, valleys and streams forming some of the most natural wilderness in Australia, it is worthy indeed of preservation. So the southern third of the Territory (Canberra and its immediate environs occupy the northern third) will become Gudgenby National Park, a region of more than 72,000 ha only an hour s drive from the city. It is characterised by thickly wooded ranges, remote valleys and permanently flowing streams such as the Gudgenby River above. The establishment of the park will bring to more than 50 per cent the total ACT land area reserved for recreational, water catchment or animal sanctuary purposes.
The middle third of the Territory, embracing such popular excursion or recreation features as Cotter and Corin Dams, Tidbinbilla Reserve and Space Tracking Station, Lanyon and Cuppacumbalong homesteads, Gibraltar Falls, Point Hut and other delightful spots, is familiar ground to most Canberrans. The scenes shown here are near Corin Dam, top and left, near the village of Tharwa.
Although the largest inland city on the world s driest continent, Canberra enjoys an abundant and assured water supply. The Territory is crisscrossed by rivers that rise in the mountains to the west, south and east. They are fed not only by the high-altitude rains but by melting snow as well snow clearly visible on the Brindabella slopes from Canberra itself in winter. Chief provider is the Cotter River above. Rising in the southern ACT, it flows along the escarpment of the Bimberi and Brindabella Ranges before being swallowed up by the greater Murrumbidgee. But on the way it has been thrice dammed!
Canberra is only two hours drive from the Snowy Mountains and Kosciusko National Park, the centre of the Australian Alps. But you need not travel even that distance to find abundant opportunities for skiing in season. Mt Franklin left is just 70 km from the city. Rising to 1,650 metres, it and its neighbouring peaks are for months blanketed with acres of snow. At other times the ranges and valleys offer hours of pleasure to the bushwalker or the trout fisherman. Below: Another of the ACT s well-fed streams Paddy s River.
ACT To Giants in their class: top, the 64-metre, 7,200- tonne antenna at Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication Complex, 40 km from Canberra; and right, the huge Yarralumla woolshed on the outskirts of the city. The latter is used mainly now as an informal venue for functions. The former continues to play a key role in space exploration.
ACT Toi Ceremony is an essential part of the life of a national capital, and Canberra is no exception. The opening of Parliament, the reception of visiting Heads of State, the celebration of national, and international, days such occasions bring theatrical glitter to a city that was not built in a pompous age but was, nevertheless, well planned for their staging. Participants in some of them are the cadets of the Royal Military College, shown here at their annual graduation parade. The college1, usually referred to as Duntroon after the original property, trains officers for the Australian and New Zealand armies in both military and academic skills. Duntroon station was established in 1825 by Robert Campbell, whose elegant homestead still stands there.
Not only is Canberra itself young, it is a city of and for the young, too. Half the population of some 215,000 is under 25 years of age, and half of these under twelve. Furthermore, of the two and a half million visitors a year a large proportion is families with school-age children. The youngsters find plenty to interest and occupy them. When they tire (if ever they do) of clambering over the tanks and guns at the War Memorial, they can go down to the lakeshore and clamber around tunnels and forts and tree houses, or a geodesic dome. There, in Commonwealth Park, where these pictures were taken, and Weston park lurk sufficient adventures to keep a young soul absorbed for hours on end... and an old one absolved!
Enticements for youth to prolong itself, or even chance a comeback, are many and varied, too. The people of Canberra indulge in almost every conceivable sport, making the most of their fine climate, environment and facilities such as the National Athletics Stadium, above, scene here for the Pacific Games in December 1977. They also are known to practise some that might scarcely be termed conceivable, br even, strictly, sport. Canberra Day, 12 March, usually brings out a few such curiosities, which may range from snail races to car body races, opposite. But the stall, top, one of many set up in Civic Square for the festivities, is for refreshments only: not even Canberrans can make hot dogs race.
s -C From car rally to bush concert, from kiteflying contest to billy-cart derby, something is always happening outdoors, on weekends, on holidays, on any day. The countryside smiles irresistibly, and few dwellers in this nature-respecting city are not, frequently, seduced by it. Above: The Down to Earth Festival held at the Cotter Reserve in 1976 drew thousands, of all ages, from near and far. Opposite Page: Top, dancing to a folk group in Garema Place; below, a bush band at Cuppacumbalong. But, while nature may do so, the girl in the sideshow right isn t exactly smiling.
Previous page: history and mystery, too, frequent this corner of Australia. It wasn t always so peaceful but now in Gundaroo the potter turns her wheel undisturbed and the vintage car outside the store once raided by bushrangers looks an unlikely bearer of new violence. Nearby Lake George, discovered in 1820, still baffles scientists with its strange tidal action. The capital of a federated nation is traditionally an easy butt for criticism. But that s federalism and the human political animal. The photographs in this book show a city impressive enough to blunt the slings and arrows of the cynic, that only twenty years ago could, and did, sting. Yes, it has taken just that long for the once ridiculed bush capital, the planners dream that for decades seemed fated to remain a dream, to become a national city of which Canberrans, and all Australians, can be modestly proud.