Dissent and the Griffins' Canberra

A bus tour of Canberra's known and lesser known sites related to Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin

Canberra Modern’s tour will take you to significant sites around Canberra, some well-known and others hidden in plain sight. The tour responds to the festival theme of 'dissent' and celebrates Canberra's as a significant designed city. The Griffin’s design for Canberra rejected rigid planning traditions, instead envisioning a city shaped by organic geometry, integrating landscape and embodying democratic ideals. It’s a city designed to embrace creative freedom and dissent. The tour will show participants how the Griffin’s dissent from conventional practices continues to inspire contemporary approaches to urban design.

On the tour we experience the Griffins’ internationally significant plan for Australia’s new national capital—learning about Canberra’s historical inception, through to its implementation. We will visit locations in the central national area of Canberra; from elevated vantage points to hidden sites, including the historic1913 Cork Oak plantation, General Bridges Grave, the 1930s Incinerator inside the Royal Canberra Golf Club and much more.