Why Australia built Canberra

Sydney or Melbourne

In the 1890s the six Australian colonies were negotiating a federation, and it had to be approved by voters in each colony. In New South Wales the first referendum, in 1898, won a majority but fell short of the 80,000 yes votes its parliament had required.^[8]

So in January 1899 the New South Wales premier, George Reid, called a “secret” conference of premiers in Melbourne to agree changes that would win his colony over.^[8] At the Windsor Hotel they settled the question that divided Sydney and Melbourne: neither city would be the capital.^[9] The capital would be in New South Wales, but not in Sydney.^[8][9] With that and other changes, the second round of referendums in 1899 passed.^[8]

Section 125

The deal went into the Constitution as section 125. The seat of government would be in territory handed over to the Commonwealth, “in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney”, and cover at least a hundred square miles.^[3]

Victoria got the last line: “The Parliament shall sit at Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government.”^[3] Australia federated on 1 January 1901, and its first Parliament opened in Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building on 9 May 1901.^[1]

Finding the place

Choosing the site took seven years, and more than 60 places were considered. In 1904 Parliament picked Dalgety, in the Snowy Mountains, but New South Wales thought it was too close to Melbourne.^[4]

The Seat of Government Act of 14 December 1908 chose the Yass-Canberra district instead.^[4] The Minister for Home Affairs, Hugh Mahon, instructed the Surveyor General that “the Federal Capital should be a beautiful city, occupying a commanding position, with extensive views.”^[4]

New South Wales still had to give up the land. On 18 October 1909 the prime minister, Alfred Deakin, and the New South Wales premier, Charles Wade, signed an agreement surrendering the territory to the Commonwealth, and both parliaments passed acts to make it law.^[10]

Building a capital

The city itself came from an international design competition. On 23 May 1912 entry number 29, by the Chicago landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin, was declared the winner; its drawings were made by his wife and partner, Marion Mahony Griffin.^[7]

On 12 March 1913 the Governor-General, the prime minister Andrew Fisher and the minister King O’Malley laid foundation stones on what is now Capital Hill, and at noon Lady Denman, the Governor-General’s wife, announced the city’s name: Canberra.^[5][6]

Parliament didn’t leave Melbourne for another fourteen years. On 9 May 1927 the Duke of York opened a Provisional Parliament House in Canberra, and the government and Parliament moved there for good.^[2][1] The building was meant to be temporary, but Parliament used it for 61 years, until the present Parliament House opened in 1988.^[2]