Canberra
Canberra (CAN-ber-ra, CAN-bruh, or Can-buh-ruh) is Australia's capital city and largest inland city, though only the 7th largest overall in the country. It is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, (ACT).
The word Canberra is believed to mean "meeting place", though some accounts say that it means "women's breasts", a reference to Mt Ainslie and Black Mountain, two elevations in the central Canberra area. It was apparently used in relation to the Molonglo River, which flows through Canberra.
Canberra has many national monuments and institutions such as Government House, Parliament House, the High Court of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, Telstra Tower, the Royal Australian Mint and the National Museum of Australia.
Geography
Canberra is located in a portion of the Brindabella Ranges, approximately 150 km inland from Austalia's east coast. Its latitude and longitude are 35°15' S and 149° 28' E. It is located at altitudes that range from 550m to 700 m above sea level. This results in temperature ranges from -5° C to 35° C. The hottest days are generally in December and January. In wintertime, the days can get very chilly, and once in a long while snow can fall.
The soil in the Canberra is reasonably fertile, but is of a nature that makes it unsuitable for the construction of heavy-duty underground tunnels. There are also many limestone plains and some limestone caves in the region.
The Molonglo River flows through Canberra. At one point, it has been artificially widened to form what is called Lake Burley Griffin. Numerous hills, such as Mt Ainslie, Mt Mugga Mugga, Mt Taylor and Black Mountain dot the Canberra area, but have been left unsettled. This does mean a colder existence for Canberra's residents as in winter cold air pours down from these peaks to form cold pockets of air in the inhabited valleys. At wintertime, snow has been known to form on the top of some of these hills, and on the more distant ones south of Canberra.
Even at summertime, humidity is low, but fog can develop during wintertime. The area had a history of floods until recent times.
See also Canberra Region, notably for the rural uses and viticulture (wine making).
Structure
Canberra's 311,000 residents live in a city originally planned by Walter Burley Griffin. The city is laid out on two major axes, an infrastructural axis stretching northward from the federal Parliament House on Capital Hill to the seat of territorial government on City Hill, and a ceremonial axis stretching from Parliament House northeastward to the Australian War Memorial at the foot of Mt. Ainslie.
Canberra is divided into seven basic districts. In order of development, they are: North Canberra, South Canberra, Woden, Belconnen, Weston Creek, Tuggeranong, and Gungahlin. They are generally separated from each other by strips of national park. Most of these districts also possess a central shopping area known as a Town Centre.
The suburbs contained in these districts are generally named after famous Australians, particularly politicians. Some are named after early settlers or Aboriginal terms. Street names within each suburb generally follow a particular theme. For instance, the streets of Duffy are named after Australian dams and weirs, whilst the streets of Gowrie are named after Australian Victoria Cross winners.
There are also three suburbs that are considered to be industrial districts: Fyshwick, Mitchell and Hume.
In addition, there is the Oaks Estate area, a small suburb located on the ACT/NSW border which is not part of any of the above districts and which has close ties with the neighbouring NSW town of Queanbeyan.
Access
Canberra is approximately 3.5 hours by road from Sydney on the Hume and Federal Highways, and seven hours by road from Melbourne on the Hume and Barton Highways.
Canberra International Airport has a full schedule of domestic services to several state capitals. There are long-term plans to introduce regular scheduled international flights, but the only international flights to date have been those carrying heads of state such as the US President.
There is a rail service between Canberra and Sydney that takes about four hours (its future is currently in some doubt). This service is operated by the NSW government. Plans to have a very fast train, with a travel time of about 81 minutes, operate between Canberra and Sydney have been contemplated, but not implemented.
A large number of interstate bus companies provide services that run to and from Canberra.
Aspects of Canberra
Government
Canberra is unique in Australia in that it is governed not by a City Council, but a 17-member Legislative Assembly that performs all duties done by both state governments and local governments. This assembly governs the entire ACT. However, since virtually the entire ACT's population is based in Canberra, the terms ACT Government and Canberra Government are largely interchangeable.
Assembly members are elected once every three years by the ACT's population using a proportional voting system. The members are voted in from three different electorates. Voters only vote for the candidates running for their electorate. Seven are voted in from the seat of Molonglo, and five each from Gininderra and Brindabella. The political party that wins the most seats wins government, and governs the ACT through the use of ministries.
To date, ACT government have always been minority ones - ie. they have never won more than half of the assembly's 17 seats. This has led to some unusual alliances to bring about political stability. In one instance, two parties with conflicting political views formed an alliance and governed the ACT through the combined number of seats that this produced. More recently, an ACT Liberal Party government ruled the ACT with the help of an independent member who was given an ACT ministry in return for his support.
The Federal government retains some influence in the ACT's and Canberra's government. It is free to veto any law passed in the Assembly of which it disapproves. Also, no ACT election can be called except with the Federal government's approval.
A Commonwealth organisation, the National Capital Authority, can also veto and influence decisions involving Canberra's urban development and growth.
Law and Order
The Australian Federal Police carry out all police services normally provided by a state police force. Persons arrested on an offence are tried in normal magistrate's and/or district courts based in the ACT. However, persons sentenced to imprisonment are sent to a NSW jail as there are no prisons in Canberra.
Courts such as a ACT small claims tribunal and a family court exist for civil law actions and other non-criminal legal matters.
Industry
Although a minority of the Canberra workforce is now directly employed by government, the city's main industry is still government and public service. It contains the Federal Parliament and the headquarters of most government departments (for instance, Defence, Foreign Affair and Trade, and the Treasury).
A number of military establishments of the Australian Defence Force exist in or near Canberra, most notably RAAF Fairbairn (now effectively closed as a base for the Royal Australian Air Force, except for housing the VIP Flight that uses Boeing Business Jet) and HMAS Harman (becoming a tri-service multiuser depot). Military colleges also exist - see Universities.
Canberra's second largest (and most noticeable) industry is tourism, with a large number of Australian and international visitors visiting the city each year. The most popular times are spring and autumn (fall), with the annual Floriade spring flower display (held each year in September/October) being the biggest. Other popular and noteworthy tourist spots in Canberra include the Parliamentary triangle (and in particular both the New Parliament House and the Old Parliament House), monuments such as the War Memorial, and working national institutions like the Royal Australian Mint.
Canberra also has the High Court of Australia, which is the final court of appeal for lawsuits within Australia and which can make rulings on the Australian Constitution.
A legal anomaly allowing the legal production and mail-order sale of explicit pornographic videos from its industrial districts has led to a thriving industry exporting them to the rest of Australia.
Embassies
Canberra is also home to foreign embassies and high commissions, the majority of which are located in the suburbs of Yarralumla, Deakin and O'Malley. The Yarralumla embassy area is another tourist attraction, as the embassies in that suburb are generally built in the style of their home country.
Embassies are sometimes open to public inspection or for public functions. They have also been the focal points of public demonstrations and protests. For instance, the French embassy received attention from demonstrators during the French nuclear tests in the Pacific, whilst the Indonesian Embassy was the subject of demonstrations in relation to East Timor. Some protests have been violent - for instance, the then Soviet Union embassy came under attack in 1969 and 1971.
There is also the Aboriginal Embassy, located outside old Parliament House. This consists of a portable building and a series of spears and ceremonial fires. In spite of its name, it is not a diplomatic mission, but rather exists to draw attention to indigenous rights and land issues. Its existance and some of the actions of its occupants have been the subject of some controversy, but its presence is tolerated by the Canberra authorities.
Media
As Australia's political centre, Canberra is naturally the home of much of Australia's political reportage and thus all the major media organizations, including the commercial television networks, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and the metropolitan newspapers maintain bureaux there. Many are represented in the "press gallery", the group of media people that follows the national parliament.
The National Press Club is on National Circuit, in the South Canberra suburb of Barton, and its regularly broadcasts its weekly lunches, in which a guest gives a half-hour speech and then goes through a half-hour question session afterwards. This has been a popular means by politicians to give sppeches, but other guests have included movie and TV celebrities.
Canberra has own its own daily newspaper, the Canberra Times. This newspaper was first established in 1926.
Canberra has five television stations, two government (ABC and SBS) and three commercial (Prime, WIN and Ten Capital).
Universities
Canberra is the home of the Australian National University, based in Acton, and the University of Canberra, based near Belconnen.
The Australian Defence Force Academy (or ADFA) and the Royal Military College operate in the Duntroon area, in Canberra's east. Both campuses produce military graduates. ADFA is a part of the University of New South Wales.
Two religious campuses are sited in Canberra: Signadou in the North Canberra suburb of Watson is a campus of the Australian Catholic University; St Mark's Theological College adjacent to the Parliament House is a campus of Charles Sturt University.
The multicampus Canberra Institute of Technology also operates in Canberra.
Sporting and recreation
Canberra has a full range of sporting facilities. Perhaps the two most significant are Canberra Stadium (formerly known as Bruce Stadium) and the Australian Institute of Sport, a quasi-educational body that trains many of Australia's Olympic athletes.
Canberra also possesses numerous sporting ovals, golf courses, tennis courts and swimming pools that are available for use by the public. A Canberra-wide series of bicycle paths are available to cyclists for recreational and sporting purposes.
It has several national sporting teams, the Canberra Raiders (Rugby League) and the ACT Brumbies (Rugby Union), the most prominent.
An annual sporting event of historical interest is the "Prime Ministers XI" cricket match, normally played at Manuka Oval in South Canberra.
Public Transport
Canberra is serviced in its entirety by a bus-based public transport system, called Action Buses, as the city has no railway system other than an interstate railway that terminates in the Canberra suburb of Kingston.
There have been government proposals that tramways be added to Canberra, either a tourist-based one that would link many of Canberra's tourist attractions, or one that links the new and developing district of Gungahlin with the City Centre. Nothing has come of these plans.
History
For a fuller history of Canberra see History of Canberra
Aboriginal presence
Prior to white settlement, the Canberra area was inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Walgalu tribes. A third tribe, the Ngarigo, lived south-east of the Canberra area. The Aboriginal numbers appeared to have been relatively small - as few as 500. This was in part to a strong pro-marital culture that existed in the tribes in this area. These tribes appear to have been present in the Canberra area since the 11th century.
They seem to have lived well on local wildlife and fish, with bugong moths being a particular speciality. Corroborrees and dancing were also a part of their culture.
European exploration and settlement
European exploration began in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. Four successive expeditions whose routes took in the Canberra area were those of Charles Throsby Smith (1820), Charles Throsby (1821), Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie (1823) and Allan Cunningham (1824). All four expeditions explored the area of the Molonglo River that is now Lake Burley Griffin. Smith and Cunningham also went further south to what is now called the Tuggeranong Valley.
White settlement in the area can be said to have begun in 1824, when a homestead or station was built in what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by Joshua John Moore. He formally purchased the site in 1826, and named the property Canberry, or Canberra. Other stations were built in turn by other settlers who bought families.
A number of these families achieved status in the area. These included the Campbell family, the Ainslie family and the Palmer family. The Campbells, and their patriach, Robert Campbell, were particularly influential.
The European population in the Canberra area continued to slowly grow throughout the rest of the 19th century. Some convict labour was also used in this area in the 1830s and 1840s.
The Aboriginal population dwindled as the European presence increased , mainly from diseases such as smallpox and measles. By 1878 , the Aboriginal culture and population had largely ceased to exist, with its members largely absorbed into European culture through half-caste marriages. The last full-blood Aboriginal, Nellie "Queen Nelly" Hamilton, died in Queanbeyan Hospital on January 1, 1897.
Choice for capital city location
The district's change from a New South Wales rural area to the national capital began during debates over Federation in the early 20th century. Followouign a long dispute over whther Sydney or Melbourbe should be the national capital, a compromise was reached: Melbourne would be the capital on a temporary basis while a new capital was built somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne.
After an extensive search, the present site, about 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney in the foothills of the Australian Alps, was chosen in 1908 as a result of survey work done by Government Surveyor Charles Scrivener in that year.The NSW government ceded the new Australian Capital Territory to the Commonwealth Government on January 1, 1910.
An international competition was held in 1911 by 'King' O'Malley to select a plan for the new city. and the local name of Canberra was eventually settled upon. On March 12, 1913 the city was officially given this name by Lady Gertrude Denman the wife of the then Governor-General, and building officially commenced.
Development and growth
Canberra's growth over the first few decades was slow, and it was far more a small country town than a capital. This was especially the case before World War II, when Canberra was noted for being more trees and fields than houses.
Building of the capital began in what is now North and South Canberra began in 1913. They were built in accordance to Walter Burley Griffin's designs for Canberra.
Melbourne ceded control of the Federal government to Canberra on May 9, 1927, with the opening of Parliament House (now known as the old Parliament House) in Canberra.
During and after World War II it began to grow more rapidly. For instance, embassies and High Commissions began to establish themselves in Canberra during the 1940s. New districts, such as Tuggeranong, were established and slowly built throughout the 1960s and 1970s to acomodate a growing population.
On 9 May, 1988, a new larger Parliament House was opened on Capital Hill (formarly Kurrajong Hill) in State Circle, Parkes as part of Australia's bicentenary celebrations and the Federal Parliament moved there from old parliament house.
In December, 1988, the ACT was granted full self-government when an Act passed by Federal Parliament that made the ACT a body politic under the crown was signed by Elizabeth II. On 11 May 1989, following the first elections in 1989, a 17-member Legislative Assembly sat for the first time at its offices in London Circuit, Civic. Its first government was led by the Chief Minister Rosemary Follett.
On January 18, 2003, parts of Canberra were engulfed by a bushfire that destroyed over 500 homes. The suburb of Duffy was especially affected, with some 200 homes burnt down there. Four people died in the flames.
Quotes
"It is always easy to sneer and criticise, but now that a start has been made [it is] the duty of patriotic Australians to do all that lies in their power to make this capital worthy of a Commonwealth... That here a city may arise where those responsible for the government of this country in the future may seek and find inspiration in its noble buildings, its broad avenues, its shaded parts and sheltered gardens - a city bearing perhaps some resemblance to the city beautiful of our dreams."
- Lady Denman gives a vision of Canberra during its christening, March 12, 1913.
"The best view of Canberra is from the back of a departing train."
- Percy Deane, Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department, 1928
"It is an expression of bureaucratic Existentialism. It exists without existing."
- Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge was not impressed with the Canberra of 1958.
"It's just like a little country town, isn't it? Charming, of course, but just a little country town."
- The Duchess of Kent after visiting Canberra in 1970.
See also
- For information about the Canberra aircraft see English Electric Canberra.
External links
- A general Canberra tourist site
- The ACT Government webpage
- A scenic look at Canberra's architecture.
- Canberra & The Griffins; A Theosophical View
- This Australian ABC page gives an account of the new Parliament House.
- This NCA webpage gives a summary about the National Capital Authority.
- How do you pronounce Canberra?(see notes toward end of page)