The centrepiece of Canberra, Lake Burley Griffin, reached a milestone this October; 60 years since the man-made lake was created.
The anniversary was marked with a slew of events and activities during the month to honour the lake’s rich historical, cultural, environmental, and recreational significance.
“As a symbol of Canberra’s history and development, the lake has played a central role in shaping the city’s identity, serving as a focal point for both local communities and visitors alike,” a statement by the NCA said.
Turning back time, the lake was named after Walter Burley Griffin.
The NCA said in 1908, the Yass-Canberra district was selected as the site of the future capital of Australia.
The government announced an international competition for the design of the city.
More than 130 architects and town planners from Australia, North America and Europe submitted plans and in May 1912, the government announced that Griffin, a young American architect and landscape architect, had won.
Born in Chicago on 24 November 1876, he studied architecture at the University of Illinois and worked for some time in the office of America’s most famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.
“In 1911, soon after he started work on his plans for Canberra, Griffin married Marion Mahony, another architect and a gifted artist in Wright’s office,” the NCA said.
“Marion worked with Walter on the design of Canberra and presented his designs in a series of vivid drawings showing a capital city nestled into the hills and valleys of Canberra.”
The NCA said Griffin’s design showed a chain of lakes along the Molonglo Valley and a triangular framework for a central national area laid out along major vistas from Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain.
On the southern side of the central lake, Griffin proposed a terraced group of government offices leading to the Capitol, his place of the people (now the site of Parliament House).
The lower hills in the valley were reserved for other government and national institutions, a university, military college and municipal buildings, including a city hall.
“Griffin came to Australia in 1913. He was appointed as federal capital director of design and construction in order to supervise the detailed planning of his modern city,” the NCA said.
“But lack of money, the intervention of the First World War and bureaucratic obstacles made it difficult to realise his plan.
“Many of his main avenues and parks were laid out on the ground at that time but there are no buildings in Canberra designed by Griffin.”
Griffin left Canberra at the end of 1920 to work as an architect in Melbourne.
The NCA said Griffin’s legacy to the world was his design for Canberra.
“One of the great planned cities of the twentieth century,” it said.
Griffin moved to India in 1935 to work, dying on 11 February 1937.
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