It's hard to imagine the Canberra skyline without it, and it was on this day in 1973 that the front page carried the news that a whopping great tower would be built on Black Mountain.
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The Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Public Works had approved a plan to build a 641ft (195m) solid tower with look out facilities and a restaurant to aid the region's communication.
The tower would allow for FM radio, TV, radio and mobile telephony and paging for the Canberra region for the next 50 years, the report said.
The federal government approval made no mention of the alternative proposed by the National Capital Development Commission for a lightweight steel tower on the mountain for broadcasting and a separate telephone tower at Crace.
An opponent of the tower, the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, said the approval was "mistaken and short-sighted".
The committee was asked to express its view on "revenue-producing facilities" such as a viewing platform and a rotating restaurant.
The submission to the committee by the Postmaster-General's Department estimated the cost of the tower would be met if visitors were charged 40c for adults and 10c for kids.
Alas, the restaurant is long gone and the tower was closed to the public indefinitely in December 2021 as Telstra tries to figure out what to do with the iconic building.