Watershed: Lake Burley Griffin 1964-2014 - 50 years of the lake at the museum

The making of Canberra’s lake, Lake Burley Griffin, is on exhibition at the Canberra Museum+Gallery from 6 September to 23 November 2014. Watershed is a series of photographs, maps, audios, books, slides, posters, articles, manuals, tourist guides, a model yacht, a trophy, reports and programs – all related to the excavation of the lake in the 1960s to the construction of the Scrivener Dam.

Lake Burley Griffin is a central feature of the capital of Australia. Canberra is separated into two distinct parts – north of the lake and south of the lake. The site was selected to hold the main water supply to the city based on the river system of the Cotter River, Molonglo River, and the Queanbeyan River, and a weir. The lake's dam and weir were named after district surveyor Robert Scrivener.

In 1911 urban planning ideas for the city of Canberra were sought through an international design competition. Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Lucy Mahony was the architect team from Chicago that won the competition (from 137 design entrants). Part of the design competition was to provide an ‘ornamental water’ feature. The Griffins submitted an idea for three formal basins at the centre with large naturalistic lakes at each end. The higher level, East Lake, is where the rivers first enter the city and where it was to be held back by a weir that would carry road and rail traffic across the flood plains. The three basins, East Basin, Central Basin, and West Basin, as well as West Lake would be contained by a lower weir. Walter Burley Griffin was appointed in 1913 as Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction to organize the establishment of the city of Canberra and the construction of the lake. During the post-war period there was little activity, and it wasn’t until after 1921 that progress was made.But the city design commenced first, and the lake had to wait.

At the beginning of 1958 the newly-formed National Capital Development Commission began discussing the lake's construction. The idea of East Lake was abandoned because the weir designed to carry a railroad across the lake was no longer required. Today there is no railroad across or around the lake. The shape of the lake was revised to conform to the natural contours of the land, and scale models were built to test water flows, and islands were introduced to minimize the need to remove excess earth from the lake bed. Work commenced on the Scrivener Dam, Kings Avenue Bridge, and Commonwealth Bridge, as well as landscaping around the lake. It was designed to ensure lake activities, such as sailing, rowing, boating, swimming, fishing, picnics, parks, and lakeside running, cycling and pedestrian tracks. The lake was officially launched on October 17, 1964, even though detractors said that there would never be enough water to fill it.

The lake was to be named after Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, but the convention for naming places required that the person had to be deceased. Hence Lake Griffin was suggested. It was then decided to include Walter’s middle name, Burley. Lake Burley Griffin is currently undergoing a re-think about its name – as some people maintain that it should be called Lake Griffin.

The exhibition includes a map showing water depths in 2009, a landscape oil painting (1960) by Lawrence Daws (1927-), and a model of a hinge bracket – an anchor bolt for remediation works on the Scrivener Dam. The nuts and bolts (1963) are only part of the original 2 metre long, 50 mm diameter steel bolts used as anchor bolts. They were embedded in concrete for a depth of 1.6 metres with the remainder protruding through the hinge pedestal and exposed to the atmosphere. They were cut from the section above the concrete foundations of the dam to facilitate the installation of the new hinge brackets during the Scrivener Dam Anchor Bolt project. 

Another exhibit is the Murray Cod Trophy (2000) which is a fish caught in the lake. The lake was originally stocked with native Murray Cod, Golden Perch, and Silver Perch but over-fishing depleted the stocks. Restocking occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, and now the lake is restocked annually with fish. Over half a million fish have been released since 1981. 

Although the exhibition is small it is interesting to note the development of the city's famous lake, especially the landscaping along the foreshore. 

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).