The fourteen rows of predominately Monterey Pines of Haig Park, Canberra (formerly the East-West Shelter Break) were mostly planted in 1921 as a shelterbelt. At this time, the new city of Canberra was significantly affected by hot summer gales, dust storms and harsh winter winds owing to extensive clearing programs intended to make the land ready for development but consequently left it barren. Roman cypress trees are also common in the green space; a classical symbol of mourning typical to cemeteries. It has been suggested that the cypresses were planted as tributes to Australians who did not return from World War I. The rigid tree lines produce a particular audial experience of the surrounding urban landscape, trapezoidal views of the sky and a rhythmic relationship with the sun, a spatial-logic system that expresses the way that Haig Park, and non-native trees more generally, have been used as a functional elements within Canberra (which is itself a city designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin).