Commonwealth Park - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Commonwealth Park is in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, on the north side of Lake Burley Griffin

Lake Burley Griffin

Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia. It was completed in 1963 after the Molonglo River—which ran between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle—was dammed...

. The annual spring Floriade

Floriade

Floriade is:*A flower festival held annually in Canberra, Australia. See: Floriade *A large flower and gardening exhibition, held every 10 years in The Netherlands. See: Floriade...

festival is held in the park. The gardens were designed by the eminent British landscape designer, Dame Sylvia Crowe

Sylvia Crowe

Dame Sylvia Crowe, DBE was a British landscape architect and garden designer.Born in Sussex, and trained under Madeline Agar at Swanley College .She was President of the Institute of Landscape Architects from 1957 to 1959...

in 1964 at the time the Lake was filled.

The park has an area of 34.25 hectares.

The park has many small ponds and water features, walking trails, bike paths, sculptures and is popular with tourists and Canberrans. Located at the park is the outdoor Stage 88, which often holds concerts. The park includes Regatta Point and has a view of the National Gallery

National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...

, High Court

High Court of Australia

The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...

, and National Library

National Library of Australia

The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...

on the other side of the lake. Kings Park

Kings Park, Canberra

Kings Park is a park in Canberra, Australia on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin.Kings Park is near Kings Avenue bridge on the North side of Lake Burley Griffin's Central Basin. It is bounded to the north by Parkes Way. The best known feature is the Carillon which is located on Aspen Island, just...

is located adjacent to Commonwealth Park, along the lake to the east.

History of the location

In 1874, Ebenezer Booth built himself a house on the glebe of St John the Baptist Church

St John the Baptist Church, Reid

St John the Baptist Church is the oldest church in Canberra, Australia, and also the oldest building within Canberra's city precinct. It is sited at the corner of ANZAC Parade and Constitution Avenue in the suburb of Reid.-Construction:...

, within the present boundaries of the park, to the east of what is now Nerang Pool. Murray's store, considered the area's first retail store, operated from the house. It burnt down in 1923. A number of stunted pines and English elms remain on the spot.

In his original plan for the city, Walter Burley Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect, who is best known for his role in designing Canberra, Australia's capital city...

, included a recreation area to the north of the man-made lake. His final plan of 1918 included an "aquarium pond", now Nerang Pool. Modifications from Griffin's plan of 1911 came about following his actual visit to the site and in order to reduce the amount of earthworks needed. The recreation area in the earlier plan was more formal and included many public buildings.

Works of Art in the Park

Title	Artist	Date of installation	Description
Play sculpture	David Tolley David Tolley David Tolley , an Australian sculptor, painter, composer and performer.Tolley was the sculptor of the 1970 Play Sculpture in Commonwealth Park, Canberra.-External links:* 16 January 2003.*...	1970
Buried sculpture	Bert Flugelman Bert Flugelman Herbert 'Bert' Flugelman is a prominent Australian visual artist who has had many of his works publicly displayed. He is known for his stainless steel geometric sculptures.-Biography:...	1975	Six polished aluminium tetrahedrons, similar to his work in the National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :... but buried permanently in March 1975 in a trench for reasons not explained by the artist.
Two figures	Dame Barbara Hepworth Barbara Hepworth Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...	1976
Underpass mural	Sue Birch-Marston	1977
Amphitheatre mural	Ann Morris	1977	Replaced in 1982 and 1987
Kangaroos	Jan Brown	1981
Dance of the Secateurs	Bruce Radke	1988
Untitled	Alan Gauir	1991	A metal flock of birds which was one of the prize winning entries in the 1991 Floriade Sculpture competition.


Walter Burley Griffin Terrazzo	David Humphries	2000	The Walter Burley Griffin Terrazzo is set in the pavement outside the entrance of the National Capital Exhibition and is a mosaic of Walter Burley Griffin's 1912 prize-winning design, set out as a page torn from a book.

Memorials in the Park

Memorial name	Date of official opening or presentation	Description
The Canadian flagpole	20 November 1957.	The flagpole was a gift to Australia from the Canadian Government and the Canadian timber industry. It is a single spar of Douglas Fir Douglas-fir Douglas-fir is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. Other common names include Douglas tree, and Oregon pine. There are five species, two in western North America, one in Mexico, and two in eastern Asia... , 39 metres tall with three metres in the ground and 36 metres freestanding. When logged from a forest in British Columbia British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... , it weighed 7.1 tonnes. The Canadian Flag Flag of Canada The national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag... is raised each year on Canada Day Canada Day Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire... , 1 July.
Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet and Globe Captain James Cook Memorial The Captain James Cook Memorial was built by the Commonwealth Government to commemorate the Bicentenary of Captain James Cook's first sighting of the east coast of Australia. The memorial includes a water jet located in the central basin and a skeleton globe sculpture at Regatta Point of Lake...	25 April 1970	The water jet and terrestrial globe were constructed to commemorate the bicentenary of Captain James Cook James Cook Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy... ’s landing on the east coast of Australia in 1770. Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,... opened the Memorial. The Captain Cook Memorial Globe is an open-cage globe formed by the meridians of longitude Longitude Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda .... and parallels of latitude Latitude In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a... , with land depicted in beaten bas-relief copper. Traced on the globe are the routes of Cook’s three voyages of exploration, with explanations of his ports of call inscribed on the surrounding handrail. The jet can operate at a height of 147 metres. The Memorial Globe and Jet were both designed by the architectural firm Bunning and Madden, which also designed the National Library and Parkes Place, located across the lake.
Memorial to pioneer women	2 September 1972	A large seat with views across the lake close to the site of the demolished bakery and store. It was designed by Margaret Hendry, a National Capital Development Commission National Capital Development Commission The National Capital Development Commission was an Australian Commonwealth Government body created to complete the establishment of Canberra as the seat of government. It was created in 1957 through the National Capital Development Commission Act 1957.Under the control of the NCDC Canberra grew... (NCDC) landscape architect, in response to approaches in 1971 to the NCDC by the National Council of Women National Council of Women of Australia The National Council of Women of Australia is an Australian organisation founded in 1931. The council is an umbrella organisation with which are affiliated seven State and Territory National Councils of Women... . The memorial was unveiled by Lady Hasluck Alexandra Hasluck Dame Alexandra Hasluck, AD, alternatively named Lady Hasluck , was an author and social historian in Western Australia... , wife of the then Governor-General Paul Hasluck Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck KG GCMG GCVO KStJ was an Australian historian, poet, public servant and politician, and the 17th Governor-General of Australia.-Early life:... .

External links

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