Griffith

Griffith is one of the oldest suburbs in Canberra, and is recognised as one of Canberra’s original garden city suburbs. The layout of the suburb was designed by Walter Burley Griffin in 1918, and was gazetted as a division name on 20 September 1928. The suburb is named after Sir Samuel Griffith, a former Premier of Queensland and a Chief Justice of the Queensland Supreme Court. Sir Griffith played a significant role in the preparation of the Australian Constitution.

Griffith is valued for its central location and proximity to Civic, the parliamentary triangle, Lake Burley Griffin and Kingston. Located approximately two kilometres south west of Parliament House it is primarily residential and is known for its beautiful streetscapes with generous streets, wide verges containing mature trees, and many original rendered, painted and red brick homes with pitched terracotta tiled roofs and attractive front gardens.

Griffith is essentially flat, but the topography rises gently towards the west and more significantly towards the south-western boundaries of the suburb. Excellent views are afforded from certain vantage points towards the New Parliament House, Red Hill and the Red Hill ridge-line. Views to the mountain range east of Canberra are also prominent from Favenc Circle and Stuart Street over the open spaces in the Griffith Central Area. An important principle in Walter Burley Griffin’s Plan for Griffith was the alignment of streets to feature terminal vistas of topographic features. Streets focused on views towards Black Mountain and Capitol Hill include Stuart Street, Bannister Gardens, Landsborough Street, Lindsay Street, Meehan Gardens, Mitchell Street, Lefroy Street, Frome Street and Hacking Crescent. These vistas towards Black Mountain now also include the flagpole of Parliament House on Capitol Hill. Streets with vistas towards Mount Ainslie include McKinlay Street and Sturt Avenue.  

There are a wide variety of street tree plantings in Griffith. Most are exotic but there are some native examples. Barker and Wills Streets, for example, are planted with Eucalyptus mannifera (ssp. maculosa) – more commonly known as the White brittle gum and Lindsay Street with three varieties of eucalypt (Eucalyptus mannifera, Eucalyptus parvifolia and Eucalyptus pauciflora). Many of the street trees have brilliantly coloured autumn foliage – for example, Hartog Street which is planted with Acer campestre (Common/English/hedge maple), Acer monspessulanum (Montpelier maple) and Pistacia chinensis (Pistachio). A number of the street trees also have a spring blossom. For example, at the northern end of Captain Cook Crescent near Manuka there are some well established 50 year old Prunus persica (Peach).

The suburb contains the historic Manuka Oval, Manuka Pool and Kingston Oval and benefits from the two vibrant shopping centres of Manuka Group Centre and Griffith Local Centre. Both centres offer a wide variety of shops, restaurants and services to the local community and the wider population of Canberra. The suburb also has a number of public housing complexes built in the 1950s and 1960s. Griffith contains a variety of building and housing types, both public and private, that reflect the architectural styles and garden city planning principles of the time in which they were developed.  There are also 20 parks, covering nearly 12% of its approximate 3km² area.

Griffith is home to Canberra’s first private Catholic boys’ school, St Edmund’s College, a Christian Brothers school opened in 1954. There are five other schools located in the suburb.

The suburb is also known for the street of Flinders way, which appears as the second most expensive street in the Australian version of Monopoly, at the price of $350.

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