A Tale of Two Griffins

An international competition was held in 1911 to find the architect and designer for Canberra, and an American, Walter Burley Griffin, got the nod. Every Australian school child is taught the name Walter Burley Griffin, but very few would have heard of Walt’s wife, Marion Mahony Griffin. In 1898 Marion became the first woman in the world to be licensed to practise as an architect, and she did the perspective drawings for Walter’s winning entry – without visiting the site.

The Griffins sailed out and set up house in Melbourne in 1914, but World War I meant that funding for the project was redirected. Little progress was made on the site and, in 1921, Walt found himself out of a job. To make ends meet, the Griffins set up an architectural practice, and their designs included Newman College at Melbourne University, the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne and the towns of Griffith and Leeton in New South Wales. In 1924, Marion and Walter moved to Sydney to supervise the development of the leafy suburb of Castlecrag.