Building Canberra Airport. Timelapse video.

John Moulis said :

This brings to mind Canberra photographer Attila Kiraly who installed a time lapse camera on the stalk of the Mt Ainslie beacon pointed at the construction of New Parliament House in the 1980s. Although the camera functioned properly throughout the eight year construction period, no movie ever eventuated. Atilla died a few years ago and nobody seems to know whatever happened to the unfinished project or whether the unreleased print still exists.

I worked for Attila at his lab in Mitchell while he was developing the E-Bond process of embedding Cibachrome prints in resin. We duplicated the film from his time lapse cameras on a regular basis.

He had cameras photographing Darling Harbour being built in Sydney and Parliament House here. The Parliament House shots were problematic because the pole the camera was mounted on moved slightly as it expanded depending where the sun was hitting it. This made the resulting film jerky and last I knew he was looking for an investor to do post processing in it to correct this.

There were a lot of issues with the film as he completed the filming after having a dispute with the contractor and not actually being employed to do the work any longer. He knew it was important so he just kept going. He was a very passionate man and could be quite difficult to work with.

I’m so glad to hear that the film made it to the public. I’d love to see it. I have a photo of myself taking the camera down from the top outside of Centrepoint in Sydney after it finished filming Darling Harbour being built. I’ll never forget standing on top of it and looking over the small wall at the city. I have no idea what happened to that film either.

The video seems to go quite well with this song, Day N Nite, spooky close match!

Play it on this link.

http://grooveshark.com/s/Day+n+Nite+crookers+Remix+/2J89J4?src=5

kevin22 said :

Is this time lapse over a 10 years period to upgrade the airport?

Now be fair. Mr Snow had lots and lots of buildings to get up before he could be expected to do anything to the, um, what’s that thing? Oh yeah, airport.

Is this time lapse over a 10 years period to upgrade the airport?

Perfect soundtrack choice – in fact if you start the song 20 seconds before starting the video, they match up – soundtrack screams as aircraft take off, beats are repeated as the passenger bridge goes back and forth.

John Moulis said :

Although the camera functioned properly throughout the eight year construction period, no movie ever eventuated. Atilla died a few years ago and nobody seems to know whatever happened to the unfinished project or whether the unreleased print still exists.

Actually, it does.

Last time I went to the National Museum (at least 6 years ago now) they had a film of the construction from those shots.

It was in the exhibition with all the Australian stuff in it, like the caravan and hills hoist, victor mower etc.

Not sure if it’s still there now.

Uruguay is still a shit hole

“Uruguay won the Copa America for the 15th time earlier this week”

How did they go at the 2006 World Cup?

John Moulis said :

Although the camera functioned properly throughout the eight year construction period, no movie ever eventuated. Atilla died a few years ago and nobody seems to know whatever happened to the unfinished project or whether the unreleased print still exists.

I’m pretty sure the timelapse movie was on public display at either Regatta Point or the National Museum. However, watching 8 years as a timelapse was still as boring as watching paint dry.

dungfungus said :

While accepting that it is a grand structure and it may pass as functional for its operators, it is a visually boring, barn-like edifice which will nevertheless probably win awards for architectural excellence.

Well, at least it is better than the new airport in Cairns – imagine the food court at Belconnen Mall with some aerobridges tacked on the side. There is no seating near the gates and passengers have to wait in the retail area. Access to the gates is via narrow passageways between the shops which quickly clog when the arriving passengers try to get past the queued up departing passengers.

I love the fact that there seems to be hundreds of workers on any one day. The most I have seen on any one day on the GDE/Glenloch site is about four….

This brings to mind Canberra photographer Attila Kiraly who installed a time lapse camera on the stalk of the Mt Ainslie beacon pointed at the construction of New Parliament House in the 1980s. Although the camera functioned properly throughout the eight year construction period, no movie ever eventuated. Atilla died a few years ago and nobody seems to know whatever happened to the unfinished project or whether the unreleased print still exists.