By Tim Barlass
Walter Burley Griffin married fellow architect Marion Mahony in 1911, the same year the Commonwealth of Australia announced its federal competition to design the nation’s capital. Ms Mahony, dubbed 'the woman behind the man' was a very competent architect in her own right.
Apparently she talked her husband into entering the competition and drew his designs for Canberra on cloth. When they won they moved from the US to Australia in 1914 to put their ideas into reality.
Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.Credit: NLA
Marion Mahony Griffin had a vision - to create a locality that would be "paradise" for those who lived there. No, not Canberra. Her utopia or imagined place where everything would be perfect, was the suburb of Castlecrag in Sydney's north shore.
The Greater Sydney Development Association was formed 100 years ago to develop the Castlecrag Estate, an area of 94 acres. A year later the first auction of lots in the "scenic marine suburb" went under the gavel. Mr Burley Griffin is credited with the selection of the name ‘Castlecrag’ - the rocks in Tower Reserve reminded him of ‘Castle Rock’ on which Edinburgh Castle stands.
To mark the anniversary there is a new exhibition which is part of Sydney Open at the Museum of Sydney entitled Paradise on Earth, a celebration of the career and legacy of Marion Mahony Griffin.
New artwork by Sydney Living Museums’ artist-in-residence, Dr Lisa Cooper channels Marion’s exquisite Forest Portrait paintings and her fascination with nature. All levels of the museum are used to reflect her work through her drawings and writings, objects, photos and films.
Surveyor with theodolite in early days of Castlecrag development.Credit: NLA
Like many female architects and innovators of her era, Marion’s role was relegated to the shadows.
Adam Lindsay, executive director of Sydney Living Museums said it was only with the retelling of her legacy that she has got some of the attention she deserves.
A Marion Mahony Griffin design from the Paradise on Earth exhibition.
"She was responsible for a lot of the more decorative aspects - when Walter Burley Griffin submitted designs to government for various cities around Australia ... she was the one who wove them in silk, that was the thing that would enliven the government's imagination and want them to hire her husband," he said.
So why Castlecrag? "They really thought that was the place that their vision for this community could come to light because the natural landscape really complemented their vision for a modern suburb. [It was a] utopian, suburban setting, without walls, without boundaries where you could invite nature into your life," Mr Lindsay said.
"They were getting the development rights and imagining this suburb in 1920-21 and they were doing it in the wake of the Spanish Flu (which killed 6387 people in NSW, infecting as many as 290,000 in metropolitan Sydney) a pandemic much more devastating in certain aspects than COVID-19 has been to us but it didn't cause them to change their vision for Castlecrag."
Willoughby mayor Gail Giles-Gidney has lived in Castlecrag for 20 years and doesn't disagree with the paradise description. "It is a very special place indeed," she said. "It has so much natural bushland, we look out from our house and we have lots of beautiful trees, lots of wildlife and there are lots of hidden walkways. You are so close to the city and you still have this beautiful idyllic place to live where you feel at one with nature."
The Griffins moved from Melbourne to Castlecrag residing at the Grant House, 8 The Parapet, until their departure for India in the 1930s.
Of her departure from Australia in October 1938 following her husband’s unexpected death in India the year before, Marion writes: “I left Castlecrag, truly a bit of Paradise on Earth, to take on the next adventure.”
Paradise on Earth opens at Museum of Sydney on Saturday November 7.
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