Page 517 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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I thank Mr Gupta for bringing this motion forward today, for the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.01): I move the amendment circulated in my name:
Add:
“(c) work with the Federal Government on inclusion of key elements of the Griffins’ legacy on the National Heritage List, in a way that protects Canberra’s heritage while allowing community needs such as housing, transport and environmental sustainability to be met.”.
The Greens will be supporting the motion. However, we want to expand it in an important way, which is the reason for my amendment. In our view, the best way for this Assembly to honour the legacy of Walter and Marion Griffin is a practical one—that is, to ensure proper heritage protection for it. The Griffins’ contribution to Canberra is not a theoretical and stale bit of history; it is a legacy that we live in. It forms the backbone of the inner parts of our city. Most well known are the parliamentary triangle and Lake Burley Griffin. These are daily parts of life for many Canberrans, me included, because the bus from Woden to here goes through the parliamentary triangle.
The Griffins’ plan and Walter Burley Griffin’s subsequent work on the capital extend much further than the parliamentary triangle. They include the major streets of inner suburbs: Limestone Avenue, Northbourne Avenue, London Circuit and Canberra Avenue. Walter Burley Griffin also oversaw the design of several residential neighbourhoods and, though these plans were modified before the suburbs were built, many features of his work remain, including the street patterns in parts of Kingston, Barton, Forrest, Braddon, Turner and O’Connor.
It is important to note that the Griffins’ legacy is not just about the lake and the alignment of streets; instead, the Griffins’ legacy is a landscape that Canberrans are very, very lucky to live in. It is the public access to the wooded parks and peninsulas surrounding much of the lake. It is the view from the Commonwealth Avenue bridge east past the art gallery. It is also the view from the Commonwealth Avenue bridge to the Brindabellas. It is the restoration of native vegetation across the inner hills, much of which had been cleared for sheep farming prior to Canberra’s foundation. It is the view west along Constitution Avenue from Russell to the city which increasingly is grouped around City Hill, as the Griffins planned.
The Griffins’ legacy is, of course, a substantial drawcard for tourists. Mount Ainslie sees a constant stream of tour buses and cars with interstate numberplates, and they are coming to see the beautiful Griffin plan laid out across the valley below.
It is not widely known outside town planning circles that the NCA’s National Capital Plan is based of course—once you think about it—on Griffins’ work. In 2004 the NCA released a planning document called “The Griffin legacy” which analysed the legacy of the Griffins in central Canberra, and this led to major changes to the National Capital Plan. We can see the real-world impact of these changes in the
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