History of The Australian Capital Territory - 20th Century Development of Canberra

20th Century Development of Canberra

One of the first federal facilities established in the Territory was the Royal Military College, established on the Campbells' property Duntroon, which opened in 1911. Prior to this, Australia's military lacked formally trained officers, who were needed due to changes to the Australian military model that had emerged after Federation.

In the same year, an international competition to design the future capital was held, which was won by the Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin in 1912. Griffin's proposal, rendered by his architect wife Marion Mahony Griffin, had an abundance of geometric patterns, incorporated concentric hexagonal and octagonal streets emanating from several centres. It had as its centrepiece an elaborate lake composed of smaller bodies of water, with extensive natural vegetation around it. Griffin's proposal was "the grandest scheme submitted, yet it had an appealing simplicity and clarity". The lakes and geometry were deliberately designed so that their orientation was related to various natural topographical landmarks. It was further intended that buildings of national significance and natural landmarks would align with these geometric axes. Later, Scrivener, as part of a government committee, was responsible for modifying Griffin's winning design. He recommended a less elaborate and geometric shape, which Griffin opposed, saying that geometry was "one of the raison d'etre of the ornamental waters", but he was overruled. The new design was widely criticised as being ugly.

The official naming of Canberra occurred on 12 March 1913, and construction began immediately. After official indecision over the plan, revisions and their implementation, Griffin was invited to Canberra to discuss the matter. He arrived in August 1913 and was appointed Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction for three years. Bureaucratic wrangling delayed Griffin's work; a Royal Commission in 1916 ruled his authority for executing the plan had been usurped by certain officials. Griffin had a strained working relationship with the Australian authorities, and a lack of federal government funding meant that by the time he left in 1920, little significant work had been done on the city. Prime Minister Billy Hughes removed Griffin from his position. At the time of his removal, Griffin had revised his plan, overseen the earthworks of the major avenues, and established the Glenloch Cork Plantation.

After Griffin's departure, the Federal Capital Advisory Committee was established to advise the government of the construction efforts. The Committee had limited success meeting its goals; however, the chairman, John Sulman, was instrumental in applying the ideas of the garden city movement to Griffin's plan. The Committee was replaced in 1925 by the Federal Capital Commission. The role of the FCC was to prepare Canberra for the transfer of the Commonwealth Parliament and the public service from Melbourne to Canberra. The Federal Government officially relocated to the ACT from Melbourne on the formal opening of the Provisional Parliament House on 9 May 1927. Among the new Parliament's first acts was the repeal of the prohibition laws. At first the public service remained based in Melbourne, the various departments' headquarters only gradually moving to Canberra over the space of several years. From 1938 to 1957 the National Capital Planning and Development Committee continued to plan the further expansion of Canberra; however, the NCPDC did not have executive power, and decisions were made on the development of Canberra without the Committee's consultation. A few major buildings were constructed during this period of NCPDC responsibility, such as the Australian War Memorial, which opened in 1941. With the onset of the Great Depression, followed by World War II, development of the new capital was slow, and in the decade after the end of the war, Canberra was criticised for resembling a village, and its disorganised collection of buildings was deemed ugly. Canberra was often derisively described as "several suburbs in search of a city". The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, regarded the state of the national capital as an embarrassment. Over time his attitude changed from one of contempt to that of championing its development. He fired two ministers charged with the development of the city, feeling that their performance lacked intensity. Menzies ruled for over a decade and in that time the development of the capital sped up rapidly.

After World War II there was a shortage of housing and office space in Canberra, so a Senate Select Committee hearing was held in 1954 to address its development requirements. This Committee recommended the creation of a single planning body with executive power. Consequently, the NCPDC was replaced by the National Capital Development Commission in 1957. The NCDC ended four decades of disputes over the shape and design of Lake Burley Griffin, and construction was completed in 1964 after four years of work. The completion of the centrepiece of Griffin's design finally the laid the platform for the development of Griffin's Parliamentary Triangle. In the four decades since the initial construction of the lake, various buildings of national importance were constructed on the lakefront. According to the policy plan of the government, "The lake is not only one of the centrepieces of Canberra's plan in its own right, but forms the immediate foreground of the National Parliamentary Area." The newly built Australian National University, on the northern shores of the lake was expanded, and sculptures and monuments were built.

The completion of the central basin placed a waterway between Parliament House and the War Memorial and a landscaped boulevard was built along the land axis. A new National Library was constructed within the Parliamentary Triangle, followed by the High Court of Australia, the National Gallery and finally a new Parliament House in 1988. In 2001, the National Museum was built on the former lakeside site of the Royal Canberra Hospital.

On average, the population of Canberra increased by more than 50% every five years between 1955 and 1975 as the development of the capital became more concerted. To accommodate the influx of residents, the NCDC oversaw the release of new residential land though the creation of new town centres: Woden opened in 1964, followed by Belconnen in 1966, Weston Creek in 1969 and Tuggeranong in 1973. The NCDC was disbanded in 1988, its planning authority transferred to the newly created ACT government and the new National Capital Authority, which was established to oversee Commonwealth interests in development of the national capital. Canberra has continued to grow with the further release of residential land in Gungahlin in the 1990s.