The top two thirds of the Black Mountain Tower are to be dismantled following the introduction of digital television and radio.
The new technology makes the aerials on the top part of the tower unnecessary and they would become unused as digital is phased in between 2001 and 2004.
A spokesman for Telstra said it would certainly be an economic proposition to dismantle the red-and-white lattice work which forms the top 63m of the 195m tower, because maintenance costs over just a few years would out-strip the costs of dismantling.
The question of demolishing the 66m concrete stem that sits above the viewing platform and restaurant would be more marginal, but was more likely than not.
The erection of the tower caused widespread controversy in the early 1970s. Environmentalists and town planners said it was contrary to the Burley Griffin vision of having no buildings breaking the skyline on the hills. It was opposed by the National Capital Development Corporation at the time. Citizen objectors successfully obtained an injunction in the ACT Supreme Court in November 1974 and work was temporarily suspended until a government appeal to the Federal Court which ruled that federal communications regulations overrode planning laws. The tower was opened in May 1980.
The Telstra spokesman rejected any idea of demolishing the whole tower and replacing it with a simple 30m lattice because “”the viewing platform and restaurant are good money-spinners” and it would cost too much to relocate the three floor of equipment rooms, even though the digital technology meant they could be located anywhere in the city.
The spokesman said, “”Telstra is drawing up an environmental plan which might see large trees growing to the height of the base of the restaurant and painting the remaining stub of the tower in a mosaic of greens.”
Telstra would engage in wide community consultation, but as a partly privatised corporation, and possibly a fully privatised corporation by 2001, it could not engage in expensive work for purely environmental reasons.
If, however, the Federal and ACT Governments contributed, Telstra would consider the options.
However, a spokesman for Chief Minister Kate Carnell said telecommunications was a federal matter and Canberra residents could not be expected to pay for the mistakes of past federal governments.
And the office of Telecommunications Minister Richard Alston refused to be drawn, saying it was hypothetical and not government business.
“”It is a matter for Telstra which owns the tower,” a spokesman said. “”It is not a matter for us.”
Planners and environmental designers have long condemned the tower. Some even predicted at the time that technology would one day make such towers unnecessary. But the tower won an award during construction for “”imaginative and effective use of concrete in a building”, and in 1980 it got the ACT Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects award for civic design.
In 1983, then Territories Minister Tom Uren refused permission for an aerial gondola system up the mountain on environmental grounds.
The professor of public architecture at the University of Canberra, Christine Wren, welcomed the possibility of part of the tower coming down.
“”They should dismantle the whole thing,” she said. “”It has been an eyesore that has detracted from the primary symbol of Canberra which is the flagpole on Parliament House.
“”It would be excellent to see the tower gone before it had a chance to spoilt the new museum, but I suppose if we believe that we’d be dreaming.
“”But I’d like to see a definite plan in place by April 1 next year.”