Australian Capital Territory Attractions

Australian national consciousness

The inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on January 1st 1901, when Lord Hopetoun was sworn in as first governor-general in Sydney's Centennial Park, had been preceded by many years of discussion and negotiation. The independence of the various colonies, reflected particularly in their customs and legislation, and the self-centered suspicion of one another that hampered their economic and other relationships stood in the way of the development of any national consciousness.

The British government's call for an all-Australian defense strategy was responded to by Henry Parkes, prime minister of New South Wales, in a speech at the little town of Tenterden, close to the border with Queensland, in October 1889. In this speech, which attracted much attention at the time, he advocated a national government for the whole of Australia. In the following year a conference was held in Melbourne at which it was resolved to work out a constitution on the model of the United States and Canada. The main problem was to secure acceptance of the constitution in the individual colonies, particularly in New South Wales and Western Australia. It was finally agreed that the seat of government of the Commonwealth of Australia should be in New South Wales, that it should have an area of at least 160 sq km and - on the insistence of the other colonies - that it should be not less than 160 km from Sydney. It was also decided that Melbourne, capital of Victoria, should be the temporary seat of government. It was not until 1909, after much competition for the privilege of housing the capital, that the location of the Australian Capital Territory and the new capital was finally decided, enabling the federal government to acquire the land in 1911. The Jervis Bay Territory to the south of Nowra was also acquired as a base for the Australian navy; and this area, now the seat of the Royal Australian Naval College, is still administered from Canberra.

Finally in 1913 the new capital was officially founded and given its name. It had taken some time to secure agreement on the name, but after the rejection of such unlikely suggestions as 'Sydmeladperbrisho' (formed from the first syllables of the names of the six state capitals) the new town was named Canberra, after the first settlement in this area in 1824, Canberry (from an Aboriginal term meaning 'place of assembly').

Canberra is a regularly planned city. An international competition for the plan of the new town in 1912 was won by the Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937), whose design was modeled on the layout of Washington DC. Burley Griffin, who had never previously been in Australia, centered his layout on a triangular area with Parliament House at its apex. He worked for seven years as federal capital director, but bureaucracy and the first world war hindered the execution of his plans to such an extent that he resigned. The depression following the world economic crisis led to further delay, and it was not until 1927, when the town had a population of 5000, that the federal parliament and government were able to move from Melbourne into temporary quarters (Old Parliament House) in the new capital.