Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408:front:0:p257
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 797532–800446

the approaches to the Australian War Memorial
  Source:  Australian Garden History Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, Nov/Dec/Jan 2006/2007, p. 10

  Figure 72.  Detail of Prospect Parkway, 1945 aerial photograph
  Source:  Gray 1999, p. 184, RAAF Airphoto 12 March 1945

  Figure 73.  Detail of a 1956 photograph looking north along the Land Axis, the Molonglo River is in flood
  Source:  National Capital Authority

National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) 1957–1989

This period was one of great physical change through the latter half of the twentieth century, it was marked by the existence of the newly formed Commission with broad professional input, and highlighted by the completion of Lake Burley Griffin in 1963 (although the lake was not filled until the following year).

The Commission in 1957 appointed Sir William Holford, a British Planner associated with University College London, to report on the future development of Canberra.  This report recommended that Canberra retain its Garden City concept, the city should be a cultural centre as well as a political one, and that implementation of the lake scheme in the Griffins' plan would unify the city.

The Commission endorsed Holford's recommendations adding a proposal for landscape development, the provision of parks and other recreational facilities.  The Commission also had built up a staff of planners, landscape architects, engineers and architects to liaise with consultants and evolve designs.  Richard Clough was appointed as an architect in the Town Planning section in 1958.  He had been a landscape student at University College London, he knew of both Holford and Dame Sylvia Crowe, and he worked on a coordinating committee between landscape, architectural and engineering issues.

Early in 1959 the Commission received an endorsement from the Government to proceed with the lakes scheme, without the proposed East Lake.  William Holford & Partners were engaged to make recommendations for the landscape treatment of the Central Basin of the lake, and this report was published by the NCDC in February 1961.  This report indicated the form of planting, treatment of lake margins, roadways and architectural features.  It further proposed that the length of the north bank between the two new bridge promontories (Commonwealth and Kings Avenue Bridges) should be informal except for the central section around the Land Axis.

Recommendations for planting included the use of the existing landscape colour on the higher ground, with eucalypt planting being brought down from the surrounding hills through the built up areas into the parklands, with light green used for the lake margins and darker conifers for boundaries and backgrounds.  Autumn colour foliage plants were to be employed for formal and dramatic use.  Flowering trees and shrubs should be massed in small enclosures so as to allow the character of the natural