Woden in the distance

If you turn 90 degrees clockwise from yesterday's view, this is what you'll see (roughly - remember these are photos from April 2009).

The promontory on the left is Black Mountain Peninsula, which is mainly a recreation area with barbecues, a playground and other facilities. The one on the right, coming from the far bank of Lake Burley Griffin, is Weston Park, another large recreation area. Yarralumla is the first suburb beyond the park, and the white tower in the distance marks the Woden Town Centre. The Tuggeranong Valley and all its suburbs extends further back towards the mountains.

Woden view

View towards Woden from the National Arboretum, taken about two months ago, near the beginning of August.

There are a few interesting contrasts in this photo: evergreen and deciduous trees; native and exotic species; suburbs almost invisible below the trees and a much taller and more visible Town Centre (with one of the most prominent and recognisable tower blocks in Canberra); the predominantly gentle slopes of the urban area and the higher ranges to the south; and the urban and rural areas lying side by side (that's a farm shed about halfway down on the right of the photo).

Other recognisable features in this image include Scrivener Dam (and the end of Lake Burley Griffin) and the bridge crossing it, the Tuggeranong Parkway in the foreground - a major traffic artery between north and south Canberra, the Curtin playing fields in the centre of the photo, Canberra Hospital halfway down on the far left, and barely visible - between the trees on the left, just above the water - glimpses of part of the Government House buildings.

Yarralumla brickworks

Yarralumla Brickworks chimney.

I'd written a long and interesting post about the brickworks and its history and significance to Canberra, but Blogger decided to eat it, so here are a couple of links where you can find out about it for yourself. And maybe when I'm not so cranky with Blogger I'll come back and write it again.

History
Timeline, including various studies and development proposals for the site
Thor's Hammer (current tenant - demolition timber salvage and recycling)

Scrivener Dam

Scrivener Dam is what holds back the waters of the Molonglo River to form Lake Burley Griffin. It was closed to start the lake filling in 1963, but because of a drought it took nearly seven months to go from a trickle of water and a few mosquito-breeding ponds to a proper lake, but when the drought eventually broke, it only took a few days to fill.

The dam was named after Charles Robert Scrivener, the surveyor who recommended the site for Canberra in 1909. It wasn't his original choice - we could have been in the Snowy Mountains, and the ACT might have included Australia's highest peak, Mt Kosciusko. Apparently he didn't get on too well with Walter Burley Griffin, the winner of the design competition for Canberra, and Scrivener had the influence to change the design for three connected lakes, at different levels, into the single lake we have today.

The dam itself is 33 metres high and 319 metres long. It holds back 33 million cubic metres of water, in a lake with a 40.5km shoreline. It was built to withstand a 5000 year flood event, and the flood gates are tested every three months. If you're interested, there's more information on a fact sheet from the National Capital Authority.

In the background is part of the National Arboretum, and on the far side of the dam, to the left, is the National Zoo and Aquarium.