Page 4982 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Floriade venues, activities and events by ferry across the lake through the heart of the parliamentary triangle. We will continue to work with the National Capital Authority as these plans take form.
To stand by Lake Burley Griffin and look around the city that we love is truly to see that we live in “the house that Walter built”. There is no doubt that the legacy of Walter Burley Griffin and his partner, Marion Mahony, is all around us. The body charged primarily with the delivery and protection of the Griffin legacy is the National Capital Authority. Our approach, as the ACT government, is to ensure that the NCA’s planning of the parliamentary triangle and our planning of the city as a whole are coherent and logical in the coming decades.
The NCA’s Griffin legacy is a blueprint for the future development of central areas of the capital. It is a strategic planning framework for the city’s future development and Canberra as the national capital. The Griffin legacy propositions have been formally adopted in the national capital plan through the statutory amendment process.
The Griffin legacy strategy establishes eight propositions, each supported by a range of strategic initiatives. The strategy aims to protect the Griffin legacy and conserve significant elements of the Griffin plan through heritage and conservation management. The strategy aims to build on the Griffin legacy by keeping the Griffin plan as the enduring city framework. It is not, however, designed to stifle the natural evolution of the city or its growth. In fact, the strategy seeks to revitalise the central national area by delivering what it describes as Griffin’s urbanity, cultural life and diversity of land use. It seeks to link the city to the central national area and to reinstate Griffin’s seamless city connections by reducing barriers between the central national area and the surrounding areas.
It proposes a variety of waterfront activities and continuous waterfront promenades. It emphasises the main avenues as primary corridors for public transport and dense, mixed-use development. It seeks to capitalise on the presence of the national attractions by reinforcing networks of tourism activity and improved linkages with pedestrian and public transport networks.
The territory government’s Canberra spatial plan is informed by the Griffin legacy and strategy. The spatial plan has set the strategic direction of a more compact city. To achieve this, the spatial plan identifies key principles, including containing growth, encouraging residential intensification, and locating employment close to residential centres and transport and good travel connections. These principles, embedded in this government’s strategic planning, are carefully designed to work with the Griffin legacy.
Thanks to the genius of Walter Burley Griffin, we live in a very special city. Canberra is one of the great artefacts of the 20th century—or, as it is sometimes called, the largest artwork in the world. But the truth is that the 20th century is over and that Walter Burley Griffin is dead. As planning minister in the world’s greatest planned city, I do find the parliamentary triangle to be an inspirational place and I find Griffin’s legacy an example to us all. But above all else it is an example of modernisation, an example of innovation, an example of creativity and an example of change.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video