Discovery trail
Drawn before they were built
Three plans, three purposes
A national capital and two irrigation centres were deliberately planned for different jobs. Compare the street patterns and institutions their designers imagined with the communities that emerged. These are thematic stops, not a continuous historical route.
THE STOPS
CanberraFederation required a national capital. The Griffin plan gave it a structure before much of the city existed; parliament, public service and later expansion gradually filled that framework.
LeetonAn irrigation service centre needed housing, administration and shops. Griffin’s planning contributed to a town whose practical agricultural role came before its later Art Deco identity.
GriffithGriffin’s radial street plan organised a new centre for irrigated farming. Processing, migration and regional services added a community and economy beyond the lines on the original drawing.