Australia's purpose-built capital — where the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour bears 102,000 names, Parliament House sits under a grass-covered hill in a planned city of lakes and embassy lawns laid out by Walter Burley Griffin's 1912 competition-winning design, the National Gallery of Australia holds the most important collection of Indigenous Australian art assembled anywhere in the world, and Canberra's restaurant and wine scene has emerged as arguably the best in Australia
Canberra (470,000; metro 500,000) is the capital of Australia and the seat of the Australian Federal Government — a planned city occupying the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), specifically created as a compromise between the rivalry of Sydney (New South Wales) and Melbourne (Victoria) after Federation in 1901. The city was designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin (and his wife Marion Mahon Griffin), who won the 1912 international city planning competition — their design centred on a man-made lake (Lake Burley Griffin, completed 1964) reflecting the Parliament House hill and sur…
The Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples occupied the Limestone Plains (now Canberra) for at least 25,000 years before European contact — the name 'Canberra' derives from the Ngunnawal word 'Kamberra' (meeting place or woman's breasts, referring to the shape of the hills). The Federation of Australia (January 1, 1901) created the need for a neutral capital city that was neither Sydney nor Melbourne — the Australian Constitution specified that the capital had to be in New South Wales but at least 100 miles from Sydney. Walter Burley Griffin's 1912 competition victory brought the City Beautiful moveme…