Questions and Answers – dated 9^th January 2008 (Printable version for general distribution)

A magnificent pedestrian bridge is to be built across Lake Burley Griffin in the nation’s capital to commemorate the contributions of the more than 10 million migrants who have permanently settled here in Australia since 1788.

Immigration Bridge Australia will be one of the most spectacular and beautiful bridges ever conceived in Australia, deserving of world recognition. The Bridge will be imaginative and inspiring, a national monument in conception, design, construction and function.

This Bridge will fulfil the recreational plans of the original designer of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin in joining Acton Peninsula, home of the National Museum of Australia, with the Parliamentary Triangle. It will be both monument and valuable piece of infrastructure for the Nation’s capital.

No. The Immigration Bridge is one of the largest NATIONAL COMMUNITY projects undertaken in Australia. Immigration Bridge Australia is a registered Not-For-Profit (NFP) organisation formed solely to bring about the construction of the bridge. Upon completion the Immigration Bridge will presented as a “Gift to the Nation”.

The cost has been put at $30m. As a community project it will be funded mainly by a combination of individual contributions (including the History Handrail Program), business sponsorships and income that will be generated as a result of the incorporation of a solar roof in the construction.

The project has the support the National Capital Authority (NCA), representing the immediate past and current Commonwealth Governments, and the ACT Government. The project taking the form of a bridge was at the suggestion of the NCA, and the land at the southern landing has been given as an in-kind contribution by the ACT government to the project, so one planning authority (the NCA) would be involved in the building approvals process. Messages of Support on http://www.immigrationbridge.com.au/

The 800 metres of handrail on the Bridge will be constructed out of the best quality stainless steel at a cost of $2.2m. On the History Handrail will be laser engraved in perpetuity the full names, years of arrival and countries of origin of more than 200,000 who came to Australia to settle between 1788 and the current day. These “name places” are available to the public to purchase for $110 (inc GST) per each. This program will yield approx $22m to the project. Details of registrations are available online at http://www.immigrationbridge.com.au/

The program for name places to be engraved will cease only when the first 200,000 name places have been filled, and on current projections that will occur sometime in 2008. A structure will remain in place to continue the recording of names of migrants and their stories and making them available for the public to view and read.

The Bridge project will include a Migration Book. It will record all the stories that we can gather about the Australian migration experience. It will be a huge book, magnificently bound and displayed under glass on the bridge, with a page turning each day of the year.

After extensive planning, the project was officially launched in the Great hall of Parliament House on December 4^th 2006. As a community project, building commencement times will depend of the pace of fundraising, but the revolutionary nature of the concept design, incorporating a solar roof, necessitates a year’s work by engineers of many disciplines, as well as our architects, before the final design drawings will be complete by the end of 2008. Construction will be undertaken from 2009 to 2011. The Bridge will therefore be finished in time to be a centrepiece for the Centenary of Canberra in 2013.

It has been our objective to come up with a design that was uniquely Australian, and capable of holding pride of place on the world stage. To that end, we have put together a unique design team of architect, engineer, musician and poet, along with the project’s campaign director. James Grose of Bligh Voller Nield and Tristram Carfrae of ARUP Australia, world renowned composer Ross Edwards, acclaimed poet Peter Skrzynecki and Andrew Baulch have been collaborating to that end for a year now.

It is anticipated that contracts for the construction will be let in the next twelve (12) months.

• The Bridge will stretch 400 metres across Lake Burley Griffin from the National Museum of Australia to the land between Lennox Gardens and the southern end of Commonwealth Avenue in the Parliamentary precinct, elevated to a minimum height of 12 metres, allowing easy passage for all water craft.

• We have asked the design team to incorporate cutting-edge technology in terms of design and materials.

• The pedestrian walkway is six (6) metres wide covered by a 10 metre wide canopy. Its streamlined, undulating design reflects and frames the rhythmic beauty of Canberra’s iconic Brindabella Mountain Range in the background.

• The sculpted stainless steel handrail running the length of the bridge will carry the names of over 200,000 migrants whose names will be engraved on its surface.  A laminated glass upstand will sit above the handrail, etched with fascinating details and illustrations of the Migration story.  

• The Handrail of the highest quality stainless steel will be treated and polished in such a way that years of human touch will enhance its patina, imbuing it with a sense of living, continuous connection between past, present and future visitors. The handrail will be treated to protect it against graffiti.

• The Bridge will be sheltered by a 4000 sqm glass solar roof which will feed electricity back into the grid, generating 550 kW of power and saving 770 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per annum. The laminated glass panels will let light through onto the surfaces of the Bridge, and the roof will perform the dual functions of shelter for visitors and commuters, and electricity generator.

A committee was formed in 2001 in Cooma with the object of bringing to fruition the idea of local resident Gianni De Bortoli, to build a monument honouring the contributions that migrants have made to Australia. After discussions with the NCA it was decided that this should take the form of a pedestrian bridge spanning Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, linking the site of the National Museum of Australia to the Parliamentary Triangle.

With the publishing of the Griffin Legacy, it is now clear that such a bridge will fulfill Walter Burley Griffin’s original plans for a continuous flow of recreational activity in our nation’s capital. The Immigration Bridge builds on one of the Plan’s eight propositions, which is to allow for a seamless link between national attractions by providing improved lakeside networks, in this case in the form of a pedestrian bridge.

While the Bridge is a stunning example of contemporary architecture incorporating cutting-edge technology, its elegant and unobtrusive design sympathetically frames the lakeside environment and its surrounds, in particular Canberra’s Brindabella Mountain Ranges.

Immigration Bridge Australia is a company limited by guarantee, with a Board chaired by Lieutenant General Laurie O’Donnell AC (Retd). Board members are Vin Good (Deputy Chairman), Richard Lawson RFD (Treasurer), Geoff Bowland, the Hon Stephen Charles QC, Johnny De Bortoli, Graham French, Emmanuel Notaras, and Jane Singleton AM.

Special Adviser to the Board is eminent company director Jim Dominguez CBE AM, Solar Adviser is Professor Andrew Blakers of ANU, and Campaign Director Andrew Baulch is responsible for project development and fundraising.

Business and Corporate Governance advice is provided by WalterTurnbull.

Eminent Australians, including Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Sir Arvi Parbo, Professor Ian Frazer and many others have accepted invitations to become ambassadors in support of the project. For a full list http://www.immigrationbridge.com.au/

It’s important to remember what the Immigration Bridge symbolises – it is being built to commemorate the extraordinary contributions made by migrants to Australia and the wonderful opportunities provided by Australia to those who have migrated here since 1788. It’s about a continuum – migration involves a journey physically, emotionally and notionally - the Immigration Bridge is designed to acknowledge and celebrate the migration story.

That said there are some interesting facts about our immigration history

Bendigo Bank is a principal sponsor and the banking sponsor for the project. ActewAGL has also made a substantial commitment to the project. Snowy Hydro Ltd and the late Harry and Helen Notaras & family provided initial support for the project, and PricewaterhouseCoopers has provided in-kind support. Architects Bligh Voller Nield, engineers Arup Australia, Ross Edwards and Peter Skrzynecki have all given considerable in-kind support to the project during the design process. SBS has agreed to a substantial 2 year media sponsorship.

We are currently actively seeking further sponsorships.

The organisers of the project are in the process of making contact with as many as possible of the various ethnic groups and nationalities which account for Australia’s migrant population and their descendants. All are welcome and we would like to encourage as many as possible to participate by visiting our website on http://www.immigrationbridge.com.au/ .We already have attracted registration of migrants coming from 101 different countries on the History Handrail.

No. The aim is to commemorate all migration to Australia with a magnificent bridge and through the collection of stories and names which will be incorporated in the construction.

We hope that all ethnic groups and nationalities will be represented through these contributions. Registrations from 1788 through to 2007 have indicated strong representation from English, Irish and Scottish migrants in the 19^th Century, as well as from a multitude of countries after the Second World War.

The Board of Immigration Bridge Australia wishes to acknowledge the Ngunnawal People who are the custodians of the land on which the Bridge will stand.

As the Bridge salutes immigrants who have come here since the First Fleet, it acknowledges they were coming to an already populated country. This recognition of prior occupation is of major significance to this national community project.

Aboriginal culture celebrates the value of stories and the need to pass them on from generation to generation. This project therefore salutes Aboriginal Culture by collecting and recording all the stories of migration in the Migration Book to be published online and in a book on display under glass on the Bridge. Already hundreds of stories have been collected http://www.immigrationbridge.com.au/

There will be large maps on the Bridge depicting the tribal and language areas of Aboriginal peoples.

The Griffin Legacy project aims to comprehensively examine Walter and Marion Griffin’s designs for the National Capital from almost a century ago (1912), in terms of both structural and symbolic content, and to recapture and enlarge upon the spirit of those concepts to present a renewed vision for Central Canberra.

The Immigration Bridge builds on one of the Plan’s eight propositions, which is to allow for a seamless link between national attractions by providing improved lakeside networks, in this case in the form of a pedestrian bridge.

While the Bridge is a stunning example of contemporary architecture incorporating cutting-edge technology, its elegant and unobtrusive design sympathetically frames the lakeside environment and its surrounds, in particular Canberra’s Brindabella Mountain Ranges.