Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408:front:0:p242
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 757578–760225

the northern edge of the current CIT grounds).  However, the line was short-lived, the bridge over the Molonglo River being washed away in a flood in 1922 and it was never replaced.  The longer-term plans to have the main-line railway from Queanbeyan run through Civic on its way to Yass were abandoned in 1924.

Following the First World War there was considerable support for the creation of a war memorial and museum in Canberra, and in 1923 the Federal Capital Advisory Committee (FCAC) was successful in getting government approval for the design of an Australian War Memorial on the site identified by Griffin for a Casino.  The Parliament House Vista heritage management plan claims that this decision 'represented arguably the most fundamental change to the Griffins' vision for what has become the Parliament House Vista' (Marshall and others 2010b, vol. 1, p. 57).

    'In the Griffins' scheme, the southern end of the axis was the site where the most important and serious business of the nation was conducted.  By contrast, the northern end of the axis was a place of relaxation and recreation.  The siting of the Australian War Memorial at the foot of Mount Ainslie changed the dynamic completely.  The northern end of the axis now became home to a matter of the utmost gravity and seriousness, the commemoration of the more than 60,000 Australians who lost their lives in the First World War.  At the same time, the placing of the Australian War Memorial at the opposite end of the Land Axis to Parliament House elevated the commemoration of the war dead to a status rivalling that of the business of governing the nation.  The Griffins' conception of the axis, with the levity of the northern end acting as a counterpoise to the seriousness of the other, was thus transformed…

    Contrary to Griffin's view of it as a pleasant parkway in a general recreational and residential area, Anzac Parade has become a place of much greater solemnity, a site for ceremony and in some eyes a sacred precinct.  While Walter Burley Griffin intended that the avenue would be lined by memorials, the presence of the War Memorial at the head of the avenue has led to the erection along it of memorials of a specific type – ones that commemorate men and women who served in wars.  These memorials, in turn, have reinforced the serious, sacral character of this part of the vista.'  (Marshall and others 2010b, vol. 1, pp. 57-58)

The construction of the Australian War Memorial was, however, delayed by the Great Depression and the commencement of World War 2, with the building not being opened until 1941.  The first memorial on what was is now