From mysterious Lake George to classy Lake Burley Griffin: the white settlers‟ tale of two lakes

Abstract

In New South Wales, Australia, around 1820, the white discovery and colonisation of Weereewa (renamed to Lake George) and the Limestone Plains (now Canberra) went hand in hand. However, the development paths of the two regions had separated, when, after the 1901 Federation of Australia, competition for the site of the National Capital was won by Canberra in 1908, and Lake George missed out. Consequently, the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra was created and subsequently developed into the classy water body that Parliament House is reflected in today. Lake Burley Griffin is intimately known, loved, photographed, talked about as one of the symbols of the Nation, and its artificial water body is used for various recreational activities. On the contrary, Lake George remained a generally untouched, intermittent natural lake, mysterious and distant for most Canberrans. This paper summarises and contrasts the story of Lake George and Lake Burley Griffin, underlining how landscape influenced colonial and modern history.