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:':'.:.a.k~ ;:-::-~k.X~,,.,... ~~Mt•~:f~...;...Lr.w:~TW..;.~&oe•'\o~' ~ ~ •..,.._. ___,. ___ v" •• ... _,-, ..,.. .• • , --- ··-----~-~---,-~--~~~~-- .,. ,-:/ . -. (!) 1 ....;: r I. .. ') r.. s I I. TALK ING TOADSTOOL SCRJ:PT NO. G SCRIVENER TIAM INTRO 5 SEDS. :MUSIC TI-IElif :OOWN AND UNTIER FOR .. • • NARR: The concept behind this dam goes back to the very beginnings of the Canberra plan. In nineteen-hundred-and-nine Surveyor Charles Scrivener was asked by the Federal Government to suggest a final site for the City in the Yass-Canberra dis t r ict. He chose the present site, but recommended among other .things that some sort of artificial l ake be for med on the Molonglo River plain, since the area was subject to flooding from time to :time. When a world-wide comp etition for the ; basic design of Canberr'a was launched. in nineteen- hundred-and-eleven one of its stipulations was the inclusion of "ornamental water" in the area mentioned by Scrivener. The winning design, by American Walter Burley Griffin, included "two i rregularly shaped lakes, one at each end of a chain of three basins formally sl1aped to harmonise with the architectural charact er of the City". Thus the Canberra lake scheme was born. It was, however, to be challenged by subseq_uent administrations and planners over the years, w1d at one stage virtually abandoned. That it was finally recoenised ru1d co r~ l eted in an amended form over half a century l ater was a t r iumph for tl1ose who maintained faith in the vision of Griffin's original plan. lVIUSIC UP FOR 3 SEI:S. THEN OOWI·T FOR •••• NARR: Scrivener Tiarn is the key to the Canberra l ake scheme. Without it there would be no Lake Burley Griffin. It l1olds in check a seventeen­ hundred-and-forty acre or seven- hundred-and-five hect are l ake which contains nearly seven- thousand- million gallons or thirty-two- thousand- million litres of wat er. The lake has an average depth of fifteen feet or four-point-five metres and a maximum of sixty-five feet or twenty metres. The si x-point- eight mile or eleven kilometre long lruce is fed by the IVlolonglo River whicl1 risos in the hill country near t he old mining town of Captain's l!'lat east of C:cnberra. 'l'hc Lmc ortain waters of the Mo longlo are reinforced by t hose from a sister rivor, the Queanbeyan. In all, the two rivers and their tributaries drain a cat chment area of seven-hundred-and- thirty sq_uare miles or one-thousand-eight-hundred­ and-ninety sq_uar:e kilometres. Lake Burley Griffin was formally inaugurated by the then Prime Minister, the Right Honourable R. G. (later T A. :: }..J ----..l~~.tt;..\.-..=-~~·~"-.~=·.:.;..~':,.~~~~$4- ..:."..:.::.;~iM;W ; ~.3o._.... .. ~~,J> • .......... - ----------- ' f J J Scrivener Dwn 2 ~ ' f\ Sir Robert) Menzies in nineteen-sixty- four, Scrivener Dam having been completed the previous year. MUSIC UP FOR 3 SEDS. TH EN DOWN FOR ••.. NARR: Statistically, flooding could occur in Canberra once every eighty years, with a major flood every two - hundred years. Scrivener Dam thus had to fulfil two principal functions ; first, to create an artificial lruce and, second, to s erve as a fldod control vehicle. Under the overall direction of the National Capital Development Commission, the dam design and construction were supervised by the Commonwealth Department of Works. Principal cohtractors were CITRA Australia and A.E. Goodwin Limited in association with the German firm Rheinstahl Union. •' . MUSIC UP FOR 3 SEJJS. THJ!:LIT DO\'/fT FOR .•.. NARR: After extensive model studies of the Lake :Basin and proposed dam, the designers incorporated in the dam structure five large flap gates - known as fish- belly gates. These gates, allowing a clear passage for flood debris, were desi gned by Rheinstabl Union after extensive model studies carried out at the Technical University of Karlsruhe in Germany and photoelastici ty s tress rcsearcl1 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electricity Authority in Cooma. Construction of the dam began in nineteen-sixty and the storage began to fill in September nineteen-sixty-three when the then Minister for Works and Interior, the Honourable Gordon Freeth, officially closed the dam valves. A year later, the water in the lruce reached the eighteen-hundred- and- twenty-five foot or five- hundred-and- fifty- seven metre l evel recommended by Charles Scrivener fifty- five years earlier. JVIUSIC UP FOR 3 SEJJS . THEN DO VIlif AND UNDER FOR •••. NARR : The dam wall is sixty-five feet or twenty metres in height, one- thousa.Dd-and- forty-five feet or three- hundred- and-nineteen metres long, and sixty-five feet or t wenty metres thick at its widest point. It stands ei ghty- one feet or twenty-four-point-seven metres above the original bed of the river. The darn i s designed to allow the passage of up to one- third of a million tons of water per minute, mo re than amp le protection in o.n o.J~ea where the norm::tl annu.o.l ro.infoJ.l l'o.rcly excee<l8 and often does not attain twenty-four inches or six-hundred-and- ten millimetres . .... :1, ~ ~ .. y:~~~~~~· .':'-~~WI IJ , -----· · - L~· ~·· -~-- Scr i \rener Dam 3({) <' . ~ ( ......) .r I'viUSIC UP }'OR 3 S.EX:!S. THEN DOVJN FOR ••.. NARR.: The lruce formed by this dam has truly become the dominant central feature in the Canberra plan. Its seventeen- hundred- ru1d- forty acres or seven-hundred-and- five hectares of water are ideal for boating and sailing. Now well stocked with a variety of trout it is one of the few lakes in the world where trout fishing is allowed year round . A licence is not necessary. The lake's twenty-two mile or thirt y- five­ point- four kilometre shoreline has numerous sites for picnickers, many of them equipped with gas-fired barbecues. The lake has also attracted a variety of water birds - more than forty species have been identified - as well as other indigenous ru1imals including the Platypus. Visitors can view the lake from a number of vantage points, including the scenic .'i' drived around its foreshhres and from the deck of one of the tourist ferries regularly leaving the wharf adjacent to the northern erid of Commonwealth Av enue BridGe near the city. MUSIC UP FOR 3 SECS. 'fHEI'T I:OWtif FOR .•. l•TARR: If the concept of the Canberra lakes scheme was Scrivener's and Griffin's, the driving force to complete the project came not from the planners of the day but from Parliament. For it was a Parliamentary Works Committee and subsequently a Senate Select Committee in nineteen­ fifty-five which rejected an earlier plan to reduce the scheme, in the words of one contemporary hlstorian, to a "mere ribbon of water" . It was this Committee that recommended that the provision of three central lake basins be regarded as obligatory. Out of the Committee Report also came a major review of all aspects of the Canberra Plan by English To vm Planner Sir William Holford, and the formation of the National Capital Development Commission. Sir William Holford, who was Chairman of the adjudicators on designs for Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil, headed a t eam of consultants who made extffi1sive recommendations for landscaping the l ake to aptly round- off the earlier Grif fin concepts. It was , of course, f i tting that the National Memorials Committee recommended that the Dam be named after Charles Scrivener. Tt1ey also reconunended that the l ruce be named after Walter Burley Griffin, clearly showi ng ho w the brilliantly- conceived scheme with which he had won the comp etition for the desi gn of the city had survived time and tides of f oTtune. ·'t:.. • ~,ir • Scri v ener Dam 4@ ' rl I':WSIC UP FOR 3 S.ECS. THEN WWN FOR •.... lifi\Iill: For more information about Canberra's attractions and the visiting times for various public buildings obtain a free copy of the brochure 11 Canberra Points of Interest with Map Guide" from the A.C.L T. Tourist Bureau, London Circuit, Canberra City ( PAUSE) NARR: This has been a Toadstool Automatic Advisory Service presentation (BEAT PAUSE)Post Office Box Sixty-three, Mudgee, New South Wales. Thank you for your, patronage. MUSIC UP FOR 5 SEI::S. 'l'HEN W WH AND FADE OUT ••• • 0 ' ""'"" (.. t;<-~t f t.! ;.' ,;·. ---- -~ ~ .

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