By Patrick Lion and Jessica MarszalekDailyTelegraph

JUST over a century ago, Australia's federal parliament, then based in Melbourne, was debating where to establish the new capital city and seat of power for the nation.

James Hutchison, a South Australian MP for the seat of Hindmarsh, stood to speak in the lower house during the debate on a possible site.

The considerations over Bombala, Albury, Canberra and Orange canvassed everything from the soil quality, transport options and grazing potential to, of course, the weather.

"If a man were to stay very long at Canberra, he would probably be afflicted with something worse than anthrax," Hutchison told MPs on September 23, 1908.

"I admit that that site would make a very pretty cricket pitch, but it is about the last place that I would choose as the permanent seat of government."

The Australian public's relationship with their capital has been just as divisive since, often unfairly simplified down to the three Ps - politicians, public servants and porn.



But despite being described as everything from the "ruin of a good sheep station" to the "City Beautiful of our dreams", Australia's bush capital cracks a century on March 12 when it celebrates its centenary.

"One Very Big Party" will feature the predictable fare of community events: live music, food, drink, "the world's longest bubbly bars", fireworks and a headline performance from the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.
Centenary of Canberra's creative director Robyn Archer says the celebrations are a chance to re-imagine and redefine the national capital.

"It celebrates the physical and human city the media so often ignores," she says.

"The Centenary wants everyone to see this place with fresh eyes, experience it for themselves and not live in ignorance about it. Canberra is much more than a city of politics and the public service."

But for many the festivities will pass with a whimper simply because, such is the disdain for the capital from some in the bustling coastal urban cities, they happened in the bubble of Canberra.

Centenary history and heritage adviser Dr David Headon blames the association of the word Canberra with politicians and the decisions of parliament as the source of animosity.

"Inevitably you're always going to have some expression of prejudice against the place," he said.

A place of political tussle from the start, Canberra emerged from years of arguments over the site, its name and design.

The first compromise came as a warring Sydney and Melbourne agreed the capital would be in NSW - if parliament was held in Victoria's capital until it was built - but it couldn't be within 100 miles of Sydney.

There were other criteria. It should be west of the coast to protect from attack and disease and be cold, being widely accepted that cold climates bred the smartest people.

But then came six years of disagreement as a myriad of places were scrutinised and the early boarder town choice of Dalgety was ruled so cold polar bears couldn't survive, and too close to Melbourne.

Ultimately, "Yass-Canberra", as the site was known, emerged victorious.

But debate raged over what to call it.

It wasn't until Lady Denman, the wife of Governor-General Lord Denman, announced "Can-bra" as the city's official name at a ceremony in 1913 that people even knew how to pronounce it.

Thankfully, it beat out popular suggestions Myola, Shakespeare and Federata and other more unlikely proposals, including Kangaemu, Boomerang City and Shakebacon.

black mountain

black mountain

Canberrans will tell you Canberra means 'meeting place' in an Aboriginal language.

But it's more likely a meld between that, the European name 'Canbury', and another Aboriginal word meaning breasts, in a nod to the city's two peaks - Black Mountain and Mt Ainslie.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about it," says Canberra historian Bill Gammage, a professor at Australian National University, of the claims about those initial decisions.

"I think the pronunciation thing was loaded because an upper class pom is bound to say it like that!"

An international, but controversial, design competition chose visionaries Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin to shape the city, despite fierce opposition from bureaucrats who championed another design described ultimately as a "third-rate Luna Park".
Prime Minister Andrew Fisher imagined a capital where "the best thoughts of Australia" would be expressed.

Governor-General Lord Denman envisaged a city reflecting "all that is finest and noblest ... a city bearing perhaps some resemblance to the City Beautiful of our dreams".

Indeed, people of the day were incredibly optimistic about their new capital.

An early 1900s painting by architect Charles Coulter, who was part of a fourth-place-getting team that entered the design competition, conceptualises a magnificent, Venice-like city of pale marble on a brilliant Lake George.
But the Great War, the depression and World War II saw Canberra suffer.

Trees were cheaper than buildings, and the lack of funds saw it take shape up a bush capital, rather than the cosmopolitan mecca some envisaged.

With the city at a standstill and appearing more like a village at the war's end, murmurs from down south that Canberra be abandoned for Melbourne grew until Robert Menzies stepped in as champion, driving expansion from the mid-1950s.
Today, Canberra can be deceiving.

It is far from the typical regional Australian town, thanks largely to a cashed-up public service, university student population and national institutions such as the National Art Gallery, the National Museum of Australia and the Australian War Memorial. Money lives here. Its median weekly household income is $1920 a week, compared to the national average of $1,234, ABS data shows.


canberraSource:The Daily Telegraph

Research conducted by McCrindle Research shows that while Canberra outstrips elsewhere in wages and educational qualifications it was, strangely, less likely to get involved in Australia Day festivities.

Principal Mark McCrindle notes that generally Australian cities have developed out of a small population base originally as a town.

"But Canberra, along with the Gold Coast, are the only two cities proclaimed in the last century where there was no population base," he says.

"It is a city that has never really had any natural pull of beaches and the like. Canberra has nothing itself.

"But its creation of such a large mass of people shows the structures and posting of national offices has drawn people there and created its own culture and lifestyle."

"In fact, it's Australia's own example of a planned city that has actually worked."

A survey out this week found Canberrans were the second most happy with their city's liveability after Hobart, enjoying its clean air, roads and employment.

But the national capital didn't like its own affordability and lack of a vibrant cultural and entertainment scene.

Indeed, a century later Australians are still debating Hutchison's claim about whether Canberra is suffering "something worse than anthrax".

Hutchison was spot on about one thing, though.

Canberra has just hosted its first day/night cricket match, a Prime Minister's XI one-dayer against the touring West Indies that produced more than 600 runs.

Locals hailed it as another sign of a town growing up.

The pitch, as Hutchison predicted all those years ago, was a belter.


1. Few traffic jams
2. Art and historical hub with pretty parks and gardens
3. Safe employment on the taxpayer
4. Good place to raise a family
5. Excellent restaurants

1. Painfully cold winters
2. Confusing roundabouts
3. Expensive
4. No beach
5. Lack of entertainment scene

For more of the best features from Australia's best writers see Inside Edition in Saturday's The Daily Telegraph.