Founding of Canberra

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher in her Centenary address to the ACT Legislative Assembly, 2013:

100 years young

Canberra, which is among the youngest capital cities in the world, celebrated its centenary in 2013. About 500 guests, 2,000 mounted troops and 3,000 observers were present in 1913 to hear Lady Denman announce the new capital’s name and to mark the commencement of work.

From a city originally planned for 25,000 people, Canberra in 2020 was home to more than 400,000 people, of whom 18 per cent speak a language other than English at home, which is roughly in line with national average.

When Canberra was named, there were more sheep than people, and the long-standing joke has been that the city’s construction ruined a good sheep paddock. Being considered worthy of bad jokes is perhaps the fate of compromise solutions. Neither Sydney nor Melbourne would agree to the other being declared the capital.

The compromise was that parliament would sit in Melbourne until a dedicated city was built, but that the site would be in New South Wales and at least 100 miles away from Sydney. Nor could it be located on the coast.

The second criterion was for defensive reasons, as warships were becoming more powerful and an increasingly militaristic ethos was permeating global affairs.

Many communities put forward a case to be selected by parliament. Some of the main contenders were Albury, Wagga Wagga, Orange, Armidale, Bombala, Tumut, and Dalgety as well as Yass-Canberra.

The first tour of senators to inspect sites took place in the blistering February of 1902. The heat did some places, like Albury, no favours in the selection process.

The prevailing wisdom of the day had it that cool, temperate climates were preferable to hot ones on the dubious basis that cool climates produced hardier races. The fight between Dalgety and Canberra revolved around how cold was too cold.

In October 1908 the House of Representatives voted for Yass-Canberra, followed by a Senate vote in November confirming the choice of Canberra by a whisker.

With the decision made, attention turned to the design of the future capital. An international design competition was launched, which attracted 137 entries from all over the world. Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin were the winners, although the judging process was as fraught as the selection of the site.

In the end, being built inland didn’t protect Canberra from the effects of the First World War, which broke out a year after the founding ceremony. From 1914 to 1918, virtually no work was done on the city.

Things improved in the 1920s, with the construction of the Provisional Parliament House, and other significant infrastructure like the Cotter Dam. This interlude was all too brief. The combined impact of the Great Depression and the Second World War effectively meant that Canberra didn’t start to even resemble a city until the 1950s.