LAA#138 : 100 years of change

“Resistance to change is the greatest hindrance to human development. Discuss” was the essay task on my first day at the AIIS, the Australian International Independent School, in 5th form in 1977. The AIIS offered a progressive education at a secular, independent school. It was a new format for senior secondary education that sprang from Whitlam government initiatives in education in the mid 1970’s. One of the subjects of a couple of the articles in this issue of LAA was in that room with me.

Later that year, The Young Marble Giants sang ”And when I see you; Constantly Changing; Never the same as; Never remaining”. A couple of years later I moved to Canberra to study at Roger Johnson’s new studio building at then Canberra College of Advanced Education, again a product of Whitlam government initiatives in tertiary education. A further omen if you like – the other day I was at the media launch of the‘Lodge by the Lake’ competition (in my role as a jury member – winners to be announced after May). As I walked toward the lake edge at Attunga Point, I spied a dull round disc on the bare earth surface – sure enough, it was a twenty cent piece, dated 1979, the year I first came to Canberra to live.

Canberra is 100 years old as Australia’s capital this year,and has been constantly changing over that period. From the sketches of the Griffins to the skeleton of the landscaped spaces planted by Weston and his successors, that created the spaces for later designers to colour in the squares and circles, Canberra has been a crucible for new design thinking.

Canberra had a series of development spurts during the first decades, see John Gray’s article for details. During the first period, a distinct ‘Federal Capital Style’ was developed, much commented on in various histories, with a complementary landscape character that owes a lot to Thomas Weston. (May 5th is the 100th year anniversary of his appointment to the Federal Capital). The NCDC period saw a change to modernist building and landscapes that populated the broad spaces in the Central National Area. What distinguishes Canberra from other developing areas in Australia is the landscape fabric that encloses the urban areas. The regenerated ‘natural’on the hills and ridges, but also the urban plantings, (the green infrastructure that AILA promotes) from Weston’s Haig Park, avenue plantings and the Westbourne Woods trial plantings, to the 1960’s Dick Clough lake perimeter and new town plantings, and now expressed in the National Arboretum by Taylor Cullity Lethlean.

This issue of LAA looks at Canberra’s landscape on its hundredth birthday, and who has brought it here. It also questions where it might go, and who may be taking it there.

There are pieces written by a range of authors, each with a particular focus. A key driver to Canberra’s evolution has clearly been the input from the public sector. More than the procurement of buildings and civil engineering has been how the landscape has been trialed and then implemented across the decades, and how the character and quality of the vegetation has contributed to the life of the city. A feature of Canberra’s development has been the contribution of designers from all over Australia. There is a strong local landscape industry with skilled and experienced practitioners, but, in keeping with the national story, the Canberra landscape is truly a collection of landscapes by Australia’s best designers.

This issue hopes to do justice to the 100 year story. I welcome comments on AILA’s openspace forum.