The Federal Member for Banks held a Photography competition for residents of the Banks Electorate. Over 300 different photographers entered one image each. There were several given Commendation certificates and another few were Finalists. My infrared photo of the Oatley train station was a Finalist.

In Bundanoon there is a local group that have a small competition every month. For the November 2024 "Portrait" topic my picture of an interesting chap taken in the Rocks area of Sydney shared the President's Cup.

Images by Peter Kneen (C)

Design Work on the Spire from 1973

My initial involvement with Sir Roy Grounds and the design of the Spire followed on from a meeting with senior engineers from John Connell and Associates (JCA) at a Conference about Tall Buildings at the University of Sydney in 1973. As a result I was engaged to carry out a complete design check on the four large spaceframe roof structures proposed for the Collins Place Project and another four roofs for the Canberra Hospital Services Complex.

The Arts Centre Spire and Meeting Sir Roy Grounds

At the end of being briefed on these two projects, we were in Andrew Goad’s office (JCA) and on the wall behind there was a drawing of a tall tapering lattice tower.

It turned out that this was the state of play for the design of the Spire for the Victorian Arts Centre - later renamed the Melbourne Arts Centre. I had last heard of the spire whilst in High School when pupils were encouraged to save their copper coins for the copper clad spire. Apparently this was more for fund raising rather than the coins being melted down for the copper cladding. The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) had been completed.

Measuring 1800mm x 1050mm across this magnificient bespoke solid piece of red gum would make a very distinctive dining table.