[UNTITLED DESCRIPTION OF A COMPETITION PLAN FOR CANBERRA]George W. Halluck, New York, N.Y.
Typescript in Australian Archives, ACT, Series CP487/6/1, Item 1This is a transcription of a typescript in the Australian Archives, ACT, Series CP 487/6/1, Item 1. It is the description of his plan for Canberra submitted in the competition of 1912 by George W. Halluck, 6410 15th Avenue Building, New York, U.S.A.. entry #136. No photograph or drawing of the plan has been located.These designs are submitted with the idea that they are to be used as a basis upon which to build and enlarge and not as a finished product. In fact to the mind of the designer is undesirable if not impossible to work up anything more than a flexible outline under the conditions that govern the contest. With this idea in mind, he has nevertheless endeavored to give a complete and logical layout for the City, believing that the completeness of the design will in no wise impair its flexibility.The principal objects which are sought in the layout are directness of intercommunication, easy grades, and an aesthetic arrangement of lines. Nor has economy of construction been forgotten. The deepest cut is hardly over twenty feet, which is slight when it is considered that practically every bit of the territory within the City's area is put to good use, and with one or two exceptions there are no grades greater than four per cent. The heavy fills along the river bottom are forced by the condition that requires sewage to be delivered by gravity at an elevation of eighteen hundred.
The large mains of the sanitary sewer system are designed for a population of a hundred thousand and will have to be increased as the City grows larger. The laterals are uniformly twelve inches in size. they are shown in part only, and except in a few instances are large enough to accommodate all future needs.
The water supply is designed with a view of taking care of a future population of two hundred and fifty thousand, and probably will not have to be increased for many years.
The storm water system as shown is merely a skeleton upon which a far more extensive system is to be based. Storm water is discharged directly into the river.
The transportation problem is met by a system of tramways that reach every portion of the City.
Finally the park system is extensive and aesthetic and is so interwoven with public buildings and public grounds that nearly twenty-five per cent of the total area of the City is really park.
Selected, transcribed, edited, provided with headnotes, and formatted as a web document by John W. Reps, Professor Emeritus, Department of City and Regional Planning, West Sibley Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. Tel: (607) 255-5391, Fax: (607) 255-6681, E-mail: jwr2@cornell.edu To Top of Page To Homepage