Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has rejected a nomination to heritage list the planned city of Canberra, despite the Australian Heritage Council recommending the city's planned attributes should be granted protection.
Ms Ley has chosen to list Lake Burley Griffin and its surrounding areas, in a move that will add another layer of complexity to extending the ACT's light rail network from the north side to the south.
The decision brings to a close a process which began in 2009, when the Australian Heritage Council received two nominations to list Canberra, with a focus on its oldest areas, town centres and early garden suburbs.
"Based on consideration of the Council's assessment report, the public comments received and ongoing correspondence with the ACT government as a key stakeholder, and in the interests of bringing this long-standing issue to a close, [Ms Ley] determined that [Canberra] not be included in the [national heritage list]," a statement on the heritage database said.
The Australian Heritage Council found Canberra met the requirements of five areas in the heritage list criteria, including that the city was important to the course or pattern of Australia's natural of cultural history, and it demonstrated a high degree of creative or technical achievement.
The statement, which was published quietly on the Australian Heritage database, noted consultation on the potential listing occured between 2012 and 2021.
"The current ACT government has not provided a clear position either in support of, or opposition to, the place being included in the [national heritage list], despite being asked to do so on numerous occasions," the statement said.
The then-acting Chief Minister, Yvette Berry, wrote to Ms Ley late last year to urge her to consider the risks to Canberra's future development if the city was placed on the heritage register.
One of the original nominators, Ed Wensing, said it was disingenuous to suggest a listing would curtail the capital's growth and development, while the ACT Heritage Minister Rebecca Vassarotti, a Greens member, publicly supported listing the city.
Meanwhile, Ms Ley included the 6640 hectare area of Lake Burley Griffin and its surrounds on the Commonwealth heritage list, a notice published on Monday in the government's gazette said.
The listing includes Scrivener Dam, Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and Kings Avenue Bridge, along with areas around the lake.
The citation for the heritage listing noted the lake's association with the original city design competition for the Australian capital, and its construction progress marking milestones in Canberra's development.
"The lake's design and form reflect the story of its development including the tensions between designers, administrators and politicians in the development of the capital," the citation said.
The citation also noted the lake's connection to significant design approaches: the city beautiful and garden city movements.
The influence of international modernism, the citation said, could also be seen in the lake's engineering works, including the Commonwealth and Kings Avenue bridges and the fish belly flap gates of Scrivener Dam.
"Many professions have been involved in planning, design and construction of Lake Burley Griffin including town planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers and surveyors. In the case of landscape architects and town planners in Australia, the growth of these professions in Australia has a strong association with Lake Burley Griffin and some of the adjacent lands within the place," the citation said.
The lake area also provided habitat for the Striped Legless Lizard, the Perunga Grasshopper, the Golden Sun Moth and the Gang-gang Cockatoo, all species facing different levels of extinction risk.
"Other locally rare species recorded here include the Greater Crested Grebe, the Little Bittern, the Little Grassbird and the Musk Duck," the listing declaration said.
The listing said the listed area had the potential to yield significant research value because of its potential to "contribute to an understanding of Australia's history and practice of urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture. Indigenous sites and natural sites are also able to yield important information".
Ms Ley's office has been contacted for comment.
