Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408:front:0:p252
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 784338–787256

Stone Pine, Monterey Pine and Hawthorn.

The willows were conspicuously located along watercourses and the Molonglo River banks.  Pines were used as windbreaks and/or specimen plantings, as were the deciduous trees.  The poplars were used as markers throughout the local and surrounding rural landscapes to identify places of human habitation and activity.

These species were found to be successful due to their adaption to the climate, and particularly the limiting factor of frost and cold temperatures.

The tree planting that was carried out in the early years of the national capital built upon the existing successful species tried by the early settlers, as well as experiments with a range of exotic and indigenous species.

Federal Capital of Australia 1901–1921

This period includes the Federation of the former six colonies of Australia into one nation.  It also includes the search, selection, planning, design and initial development of the national capital on the Limestone Plains, within a designated area of New South Wales – the Federal Capital Territory (later the Australian Capital Territory).

The Yass/Canberra district was considered as a candidate for the capital following the 1901 meeting of the Congress of Engineers, Architects, Surveyors and others Interested in the Building of the Federal Capital of Australia.  In the following years, after a long and difficult process which included consideration of many other possible sites, Canberra was eventually selected, and it was surveyed in 1909.

The image of the future capital addressing a large water body was promoted by architect Robert Coulter's 1901 visionary painting which depicted a proposed capital beside Lake George.

Another contributor to the Congress was Charles Bogue-Luffman, the first Director of Burnley College of Horticulture, Melbourne.  He put forward a paper describing the future capital city as one which could be integral with its ecological setting and that 'the adaptation of streets and architecture to the natural contour and position of the landscape' should be promoted such that the landscape be Australian in character, as opposed to a romantic/nostalgic interpretation of the northern hemisphere.

The site selected by the Federal Parliament was used in an international competition for the design of the capital in the same year (1911) that the area was named Canberra, after Canberry.

Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin won the design competition in 1912 and Walter accepted the position of Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction during his initial visit to Australia in 1913.  In May 1914 he returned to Australia with his wife Marion, after settling his American affairs, and set up offices in both Melbourne and Sydney.

With the establishment of Canberra as the site for the nation's capital, arboriculture became a means of implementing planning and design concepts in