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Title: The Federal Capital. Report Explanatory of the Preliminary General Plan. Author: Walter Burley Griffin. * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 1305201h.html Language: English Date first posted: September 2013 Date most recently updated: September 2013 Produced by: Ned Overton. Project Gutenberg Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg Australia Licence which may be viewed online.GO TO Project Gutenberg Australia HOME PAGE
♦ | Preliminary General Plan. |
1. | SITE. |
2. | FUNCTIONS. |
2.1 | Occupation. |
2.11 | Public. |
2.12 | Private. |
2.2 | Communication. |
2.21 | External. |
2.22 | Internal. |
Page 7, | paragraph 7, line 3, "lock" should read "lake". |
Page 13, | paragraph 3, line 4, a comma should be inserted after "permits". |
Page 14, | paragraph 8, line 7, no comma after word "hills"; line 14, "Capitol" should read "Capital"; paragraph 11, line 4, "intersection" should read "interception". |
Page 15, | paragraph 8, line 3, a comma should be inserted after word "trees". |
1.1. Mountain Ranges |
. . |
Beautiful blue and snow-capped peaks of the
Australian Alps, counted among the leading natural features of
Australia, he to the south and west, properly sunlit for the
scenic background. |
1.2. Local Mounts |
. . |
Ainslie, Black Mountain, Mugga Mugga, rising almost 700 feet (too lofty and too exposed for building purposes), afford objective points of prospect to terminate great garden and water vistas, with conspicuous positions for future commemorative monuments, and conversely offer points of outlook over a city arranged in an orderly way with reference to them. |
The isolated conical aspect of Ainslie and its
alignment with two central eminences on the opposite side of the
Molonglo suggested the lesser one of these vistas. The apposition
of Black Mountain, with the general direction of the waterway and
the broad prospect of the Queanbeyan Plains to the eastward,
suggest its transverse and more marked vista opening or axis. |
||
1.3. Hills and Spurs |
. . |
Eminences rising to 200 feet furnish most
appropriate public building sites to terminate main thoroughfares
disposed with reference to them and often in apposition with the
mountains also. The natural contribution of elevated foundations
that may be treated in a variety of ways, formal and informal, is
an asset for architectural impressiveness not to be wasted. These
hills, however, are not considered to dictate either the public
buildings, sites, or main thoroughfare lines, except in the light
of other determining factors. |
1.4. Molonglo River and Flood Basin. |
. . |
The considerable central flats are unavailable for building purposes, but eminently suitable for a waterway of the largest extent that would be consistent with a location in the heart of the city, where only, on the other hand, a water feature of the restricted size procurable at Canberra can maintain a dignity in keeping with its purpose. |
The practicability of maintaining a surface of
5 square miles of water is verified by all known data, provided
proper precautions are taken in the head waters of the Queanbeyan
and Molonglo Rivers. Moreover, there are additional river
supplies available within the limits of expense proportionate to
any unprecedented or possible need. |
||
1.5. Valleys |
. . |
The open alluvial fields, flat or undulating, are most suitable for ordinary purposes of industry and habitation. |
Within the site these areas are practically all swept by the dominant winter westerly winds, since only heights of the scale and abruptness of Ainslie, Pleasant Hill, Black Mountain, Mugga Mugga, or Red Hill afford appreciable protection to narrow skirtings, which occur in no considerable case within the city limits. Not more than one-sixth of the official site can be considered so protected, and that in instances too scattered and too rugged for development for general purposes. Such protection can only be accommodated in suburban extensions to be provided north and south as illustrated in the original premiated plan. |
||
However, experiment with winds of the ordinary winter velocity on the Australian plateau indicates that a moderate amount of easily effected tree growth will afford sufficient protection for situations such as even the most exposed on this site, a fact further attested by the generally acknowledged attractiveness for habitation of the tops of spurs extending west from Capitol Hill. |
||
As an initial deterrent to occupation, the wind may be discounted by the present local experience, wherein temporary settlement has been created in an area—possibly the most wind-swept of all—with very slight or no tree protection. Here the first permanent residence has been located after ten months' residential experience in a tent on one of the most exposed points, commanding, however, the mountain view. |
||
The slopes north of the river basin comprising the flat areas having the finest prospect of the mountain background, and of central dominating sites for the most important public architectural group offer the greatest scenic advantages, and are to be given preference for the most general industrial and domestic functions for the democratic purpose of "the greatest good for the greatest number." |
Walter Burley
Griffin, Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction, October, 1913. |