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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (28 June) . . Page.. 2163 ..

MR CORBELL

city tradition and are unique in Australia. The precinct's design has direct associations with the work of Walter Burley Griffin and Sir John Sulman, who was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee at the time of the precinct's development.

There is no doubt that the precinct warrants heritage listing and protection. The key question is: should the heritage listing allow dual occupancy development, and will dual occupancy development undermine the heritage significance of the precinct? Mr Speaker, there is no doubt in my mind that it will, and it is for this reason that I propose this motion today.

The rationale for the variation tabled by the government is that the provision made in the variation for dual occupancy development will not detract from the general dominance of landscape over built form in the Old Red Hill precinct. This approach fundamentally ignores the key heritage consideration in relation to Old Red Hill, and that is that the Old Red Hill area warrants heritage protection because it is a 20th century garden suburb of immense interest and importance.

Those are not my words: "a 20th garden city of immense interest and importance". They are the words of Professor James Weirick, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of New South Wales who gave very important evidence to the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services inquiry into this matter. The evidence presented by Professor Weirick highlighted the fact that the Red Hill precinct was a remarkable example of a garden suburb of the 1920s in the garden city tradition. He suggested that to find anything comparable to Red Hill would require viewing examples in the United States dating from the 19th century.

Professor Weirick highlighted the fact that the Red Hill precinct is essentially divided into three distinct parts. The first is often described as the dress circle. This comprises blocks on the high side of Mugga Way. He indicated that the second area, in his view, was the semirural residential area. This area comprises very large blocks of up to more than 10,000 square metres. He then identified the third area of the Old Red Hill precinct, which he described as the conventional prestige suburb area comprising essentially semirural residential areas which were subdivided between the 1930s and the 1960s.

Evidence given to the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services highlighted the fact that the key issues for consideration in determining the importance of these areas should be the factors of rarity and representativeness. Professor Weirick, in his evidence, indicated that in heritage conservation terms the dress circle area and the semirural residential area are rare in heritage terms. He further indicated that all three areas within the precinct-the dress circle, the semirural residential area and the conventional prestige suburb area are representative and are a fine example of Australian middle-class suburbia in the 20th century. Again, they are not my words but the words of a highly respected academic expert on the issues relating to the design of garden cities and particularly the work of Walter Burley Griffin in Canberra.

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