Civic Square Background Information
September 2019 ACT Heritage Council BACKGROUND INFORMATION THE CIVIC SQUARE PRECINCT (BLOCKS 3, 18-23 AND 26 SECTION 19, CITY) At its meeting of 19 September 2019 the ACT Heritage Council decided that the Civic Square Precinct was eligible for provisional registration. The information contained in this report was considered by the ACT Heritage Council in assessing the nomination for the Civic Square Precinct against the heritage significance criteria outlined in s10 of the Heritage Act 2004. Planning for the Precinct – building on the Griffin framework The Civic Square Precinct (see Figure 18 p.20) is located on the lower eastern slopes of City Hill in the Canberra Central district and within that, the division of City. The area was originally named Civic Centre in Walter Burley Griffin's 1911 plan for Canberra, in which it was to be the civic administration area for the city, separate to the Commonwealth government area on the other side of the proposed lake, including tree lined streets and avenues, a city hall, courts, jail, post office, banks, offices, plazas and other functions essential to the day to day running of a modern city. When Prime Minister Bruce opened the Civic Shopping Centre on 6 December 1927 (today the Melbourne and Sydney Buildings) he said, “I dislike the name Civic Centre, and I think that a much better name can be given to the place…and we must give names which are original and appropriate.” (Canberra Times 6 December 1927:1) This possibly foreshadowed the Canberra National Memorials Committee’s 8 December 1927 report, with Bruce as the chair, on naming Canberra’s streets and suburbs that formed the basis of the 20 September 1928 determination under the National Memorials Ordinance 1928 officially naming the Division as City (noting that the Naming Committee also had control of approvals, rejections and alterations of any naming proposals).
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