National Archives of Australia, A1200, L83791The nation’s capitol
On the other side of the world, planning for the national capital was underway. Little did Ruth and Charles know that work would bring them to the new city of Canberra or that their mark would be so profound.
According to the original concept for the ‘ideal city’ proposed by Walter Burley Griffin in collaboration with Marion Mahony Griffin, their vision was to unite urban design geometry with the natural topographic features of the Molonglo Valley. At its apex would be ‘Kurrajong’ Hill, the site for three buildings.
Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin proposed prominent locations for the residences for the Governor-General and Prime Minister, flanking a Capitol building at the apex of a parliamentary triangle, 1911. Map of the contour survey of the site for the Federal Capital of Australia, circa 1911, prepared by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin National Archives of Australia, A710, 36
The centrepiece, the Capitol, would stand as a symbolic monument to Australian democracy and the national psyche. Below its stepped pyramidal roof, spaces for popular assembly, the storage of the nation’s archives and the celebration of defining achievements were imagined.
On either side of the Capitol, official residences for the constitutional head of state, the Governor-General and the elected head of government, the Prime Minister, were proposed. The Griffins’ concept did not proceed, and the site would become Parliament House on Capital Hill decades later, while the distinguished occupants of the proposed residences were provided with alternative accommodation elsewhere in Canberra.
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