page_title: History of Lake Burley Griffin
section_title: Lakes, islands and foreshore
hierarchical_section_title: History of Lake Burley Griffin / Construction / Lakes, islands and foreshore
caption_attribution_description: English: Kings Ave Bridge under construction
context_page_description: The history of Lake Burley Griffin, an artificial body of water in Canberra, the capital of Australia, is a long one. Following its initial design in the 1910s, extensive political disputes occurred until it was finally built in the 1960s.
context_section_description: The excavation of Lake Burley Griffin began in 1960 with the clearing of vegetation from the floodplain of the Molonglo River. The trees on the golf course and along the river were pulled up, along with the various sports grounds and houses.
  During major earthworks, at least 382,000 cubic metres of topsoil excavated. it was collected for use at several public parks and gardens, including the future Commonwealth Park on the northern shore. It was also used to create the six artificial islands including Springbank Island. The island was named after the former Springbank Farm that was situated there. Land excavated to create a sailing course at Yarralumla was used to create the thematically-named Spinnaker Island to its north, while excavated stone was moved beside the Kings Avenue Bridge at the eastern edge of the central basin to form Aspen Island.
  Care was taken to excavate the entire lake floor to a depth of at least two metres to provide sufficient clearance for boat keels. Another reason given for this was that mosquitoes would not breed nor would weeds grow at such a depth.
  During the following phase of work, four types of lake margin were constructed:
  Low reinforced concrete retaining walls can be seen on the southern side of the Central Basin.
  Grouted rock wall can be seen on the eastern side of Central Basin nearest Commonwealth Park, as well as much of the Eastern Basin.
  Sand and gravel beaches are designed to cater for lakeside recreational pursuits. These are mostly prevalent on the western half of the lake complex.
  Rocky outcrops, steeply sloping stable shores with water vegetation such as bullrushes. This treatment is evident in the Western Lake in Yarralumla.
caption: Southern end of Kings Avenue Bridge under construction with Australian War Memorial at far left c.1961
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