National Carillon and Aspen Island Heritage Management Plan

GML was engaged by the National Capital Authority to review and update the 2011 Heritage Management Plan for the National Carillon and Aspen Island. GML’s team included Griffin Associates Environment, providing expert input on natural heritage.

The National Carillon was a gift from the British Government to Australia in 1963 to commemorate the fiftieth jubilee of Canberra’s founding as the National Capital. The late Twentieth-Century Brutalist structure holds the 57 bells of the Carillon instrument, with performances ringing out across Lake Burley Griffin. Queen Elizabeth II Island (renamed from Aspen Island in 2022), is the largest of three islands in the central basin of Lake Burley Griffin.

GML’s updated HMP was prepared to inform the NCA about the conservation, management and interpretation of the Carillon and its island setting. The HMP responded to 2019–20 upgrade works to improve the musicality of the instrument and was written in accordance with the requirements of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

GML’s HMP was approved by the Australian Heritage Council and ensures that the can could continue to make decisions about the future of the National Carillon and Aspen Island that support and celebrate its importance to the Canberra community, Canberra’s designed cultural landscape, and as an architectural icon.

You can read the National Carillon and Aspen Island Heritage Management Plan on the National Capital Authority website.