Early Historic Preservation in Australia: The Walter Burley Griffin Connection

Abstract

Walter Burley Griffin is not remembered as a historic preservationist, but his involvement in a campaign to save a convict-built building in Sydney, Australia, in the 1930s reveals a deep respect for the inherited built landscape. Griffin's contribution, while modest, is important because it illustrates an important juncture in the evolution of the historic preservation movement in Australia. These effrts can be situated within his broader socio-architectural philosophy, and represent a neglected dimension in the career of one of the major figures af twentieth-century architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning.

Buildings are the most subtle, accurate and enduring records of life-hence their problems are the problems of life and not problems of form; but through the forms and material of buildings we can gain an insight into the life of the past.