Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. History records that the Griffins did come to Canberra to supervise the plan, but they had a rocky relationship with bureaucrats, eventually resulting in Walter being removed as director of construction by the Hughes government in 1921. He subsequently left Australia for India in 1935, having designed the towns of Leeton and Griffith and residential developments at Castlecrag in Sydney and at Eaglemont in Melbourne, as well as a series of notable buildings including Melbourne's Capitol Theatre and Newman College at the University of Melbourne.

The main features that were in the plan can be observed in Canberra today. But, as Professor David Dolan observes, the Griffin 'vision is grossly diluted and adulterated' and was 'ruthlessly compromised'. Indeed, the only fully completed structure that Griffin designed is the grave of the WWI general Sir William Bridges, at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

It is appropriate that the Australian parliament recognises and celebrates the centenary of the city which was designed as its home and which in the decades since has become a thriving, modern symbol of Australia, a location for government, culture and commerce and a home for hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens. I commend the motion to the House.

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