While some strongly feel this year is the actual centenary of Canberra, March 12 of next year is the official date marking the laying of three foundation stones for the new bush capital at a ceremony over which Prime Minister Andrew Fisher officiated. At that event, held on Kurrajong Hill, now Capital Hill, were the Governor-General, Lord Denman and Lady Denman, she proclaiming the capital would be called Canberra. The colourful Minister for Home Affairs - King O'Malley- was also involved in the ceremony.
The award winning plan for Canberra , designed by American Walter Burley Griffin, with striking water colour perspectives supplied by his wife , Marion Mahony , one of the first licensed female architects in the world, was accepted in 1912, thus regarded by many as the real birth of the capital.
To mark the looming major event , Little Darwin searched through its collection of unusual ephemera and came up with the above rarity . It is a notice from THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD announcing the resumption of the competition to select the architect for Parliament House in the new capital city of Canberra, signed by Walter Burley Griffin, Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction .
The competition, which had opened in June 1914 , had been suspended in September of that year owing to the war. Reopened in 1916, it was again put aside because of the war . The above notice says the competition was open to applicants from friendly countries ( enemy subjects not eligible ). The date for receiving drawings had been extended to April 30, 1917, at London and Melbourne.
Details could be obtained from the High Commissioner for Australia , London, the Works’ Departments of British Dominions, the British Embassies at Madrid, Paris, Rome, Petrograd, Stockholm and Washington. Outline sketch designs only were needed , there being eight prizes aggregating 6000 pounds ($12,000). An international jury of architects would judge the entries- George T. Poole, of Australia; Sir John Burnet, Great Britain; Victor Laloux , France; Louis H. Sullivan, USA, and Eliel Saarinen, Russia. As it turned out, the Commonwealth Chief Architect, John Smith Murdoch, a dour Scot , said not to have been overly keen on the concept of Canberra as the national capital,who fell out with W.B. Griffin, was charged with designing and constructing what was supposed to be a provisional parliament house , occupied from 1927 to 1988.
