Description

The first official map of Canberra made upon the city becoming the capital of Australia in May 1927, depicting the newly built (but uncompleted) ‘planned city’ largely faithful to the design of the American architect Walter Burley Griffin (a former disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright) and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin, which shows Canberra to be comprised of a series of geometric street patterns, highlighting the sites of major public edifices, built in harmony with the Molonglo River and area’s hilly terrain; considered to be one of the most pleasant and successful of all modern planned cities, its major attributes remain in place to the present day; published in Canberra by the Federal Capital Commission which oversaw the construction and administration of the city – rare.

 

In 1901, the Australian colonies united to create the new nation of the Commonwealth of Australia. Immediately, a fierce debate ensured between its two largest cites, Sydney and Melbourne, for the role of federal capital. In due course, it was agreed that neither would be the capital, as that designation would go to an entirely new ‘planned city’ that would be built in the interior of New South Wales, but at some distance from Sydney.

Several sites for the new capital were considered. In the 1908, Robert Scrivener (1855 – 1923), the Director of Commonwealth Lands & Surveys, mapped the obscure ‘District of Yass-Canberra’, located about 150 miles from Sydney and 400 miles from Melbourne. The following year, he recommended to the government that this area be chosen as the site of the new capital. His proposal was accepted, and the federal government purchased a tract of 911 sq. miles from New South Wales, that would, in 1911, become the Federal Capital Territory (later the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)).

In 1911, King O’Malley, the Australian Minister of Home Affairs, opened a competition for the urban plan for the new city, for which 137 entries from across the globe were submitted.

In May 1912, the winner was declared to be the plan proposed by Walter Burley Griffin (1876 – 1937), an American architect and former disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, which was partially based upon the work of his wife, Marion Mahony Griffin (1871 – 1961), likewise a professional architect (although due to the sexism of the day she often did not receive the credit she deserved!).

The Griffins’ ultra-modern plan envisaged a city built upon a series of geometric street formations built in harmony with the hilly topography, with ample greenspace and grand public edifices.

Walter Burley Griffin wrote that:

“I have planned a city that is not like any other in the world. I have planned it not in a way that I expected any government authorities in the world would accept. I have planned an ideal city – a city that meets my ideal of the city of the future.”

In 1913, the new city was officially given the name Canberra. While construction commenced almost immediately, it would be some years before it was to be built and could assume it role as capital (Melbourne would serve as the temporarily capital).

In May 1914, Walter Burley Griffin moved to Canberra to oversee the creation of the city as the Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction. However, his task was made very difficult, due to WWI budgetary cutbacks and (often idiotic) interference from politicians. At one point, the serial meddlers came close to severely altering the Griffins’ original urban design, advocating for a hideous and weird hybrid of various former competition proposals. Fortunately, this push as rejected and the original Griffin plan was reinstated, although the progress of construction was far slower than originally planned. The disputes and the glacial pace of the project forced Griffin to resign at the end of 1920, leaving matters in the hands of the Federal Capital Commission.

By the mid-1920s, enough of Canberra had been built, largely faithful to the Griffin plan, such that it was decided that the city could functionally assume its role as the capital.

On May 9, 1927, HRH The Duke of York (later King George VI) officially inaugurated the new federal Parliament House, surrounded by “scenes of epic pageantry”, so making Canberra the capital. The personnel and institutions of government were installed that month, although the construction of the city was still far from complete, with works continuing everywhere. While the Great Depression again arrested the building of Canberra, in time, the city became a fully serviced and developed capital that met with Griffin’s “ideal of the city of the future”.

The Map in Focus

Present here is the first official map of Canberra made upon the city becoming the capital of Australia in May 1927, published locally by the Federal Capital Commission. While the city is shown to be far from complete, most of the seminal features of the urban centre have been realized, while the projected continuation of construction is depicted. The design, as show, is largely faithful to the plan of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, save for some minor amendments (i.e., the curvature of certain roads, etc.) that do not in any appreciable way detract from their vision.

The map is billed as being: ‘Compiled & Published by THE FEDERAL CAPITAL COMMISSION from the FIRST PREMIATED DESIGN by WALTER BURLEY GRIFFIN & from Surveys conducted under direction of C.R. SCRIVENER late Director of Commonwealth Lands & Surveys with approved detail modifications of design to MAY 1927’.

The map shows Canberra to be composed of an orderly, ultra-modern urban plan, with streets radiating from a series of nodes (ex. the Capital Centre, Civic Centre, etc.) which run in harmony with the natural landscape dominated by the three hills of Mount Ainsley, Black Mountain and Red Mountain, as well as the Mononglo River. The streets are wide and the urban blocks large, with there being ample greenspace and open vistas. Numerous major edifices are outlined and labelled, with Parliament House occupying the pride of place, as the centrepoint with the map, from which concentric circles are shown to radiate 4 miles outwards.

Symbols and colours indicate land use as explained in the ‘Notes’, lower left, with ‘Constructed Roads’ = Yellow Lines; ‘Railway Surveyed’ = Black Tracks; ‘Railway Existing’ = Red Tracks; ‘Residential Sites’ = Shaded in Pink; ‘Retail Trading Sites’ = Shaded in Red; ‘Minor Industrial Sites’ = Shaded in Red with Mss. Black Stripes; ‘Church Sites’ = Shaded in Orange; and ‘Plantations’ = Shaded in Green, while contours of elevation are captured at 25 foot intervals.

The basins outlined along the Mononglo River in the city centre indicate the locations of parts of an envisaged lake, to be made my daming the river. This aspect of the Griffin plan would not be realized until 1963, upon the creation of Lake Burley Griffin.

The future development of what it now central Canberra largely followed the plan as depicted here, accounting for only minor deviations.

The map features the handstamps of ‘H. Hurry / Received Dec 13 1927 / Answered’, on the inner cover and verso, which we gather refers to the firm of H. Hurry & Son, Solicitors, of Kyneton, Victoria, located just northwest of of Melbourne.

A Note on Rarity

The map is rare. We can locate examples in 10 institutions, including the National Library of Australia (7 examples), Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cornell University Library, State Library of Victoria, ACT Heritage Library, ACT Library, Geoscience Australia Library, University of Newcastle Auchmuty Library, and the State Library of New South Wales. We cannot trace any sales records for any other examples.

References: National Library of Australia (7 examples): [ex.] MAP G8984.C3G45 1927; Library of Congress: G8964.C3 1927 .A8; OCLC: 495100434, 76891375, 662510364.