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Canberra History
It is believed that Aboriginal people used the area which is now the ACT as a meeting place, possibly for corroborees held to mark the migration of the bogong moth, which was hunted and eaten. Canberra was first settled by Europeans in 1824, when Joshua Moore bought the first land grant in the area, at the foot of Black Mountain. By 1845 a town had grown up in the shadow of the mountain, with the newly built St John's Church and the nearby school at its centre.
The establishing of a national capital and surrounding Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was one of the tenets of the constitution created when the colonies were federated into Australian states in 1901. The site was selected in 1908 - diplomatically situated between arch rivals Sydney and Melbourne. Canberra was named in 1913, from an Aboriginal term believed to mean 'meeting place', and an international competition to design the city was won by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin. Development of the site was slow and although parliament was first convened in the capital in 1927, it was not until after WWII that the dream of a national capital began to reach fruition.
In 1957 the Menzies Government created the National Capital Development Commission, to establish Canberra as the seat of government and generally spruce the place up a bit. Over the next 20 years it was full steam ahead - bridges were built over a hypothetical lake, then a year later the lake followed; the Mint, the National Library, the Botanic Gardens and the Carillon sprang up; the civic centre was packed full of offices, shops and theatres. Throughout the 60s the public service became Canberra's major industry, with departments shifting to the capital from all over the country, bringing with them hordes of happy families in search of a quarter-acre block to call their own. In line with its reputation as a planned city, Canberra's growth was less than organic - rather than filling in the city centre and letting suburbs sprawl around it, the NCDC oversaw the setting up of 'satellite towns' to the north and south. Woden, to the south, was set up first, then Belconnen to the north. In the 70s they were followed by Tuggeranong, and in the 80s Gunghalin.
Since Federation the ACT had been under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, with no local government of its own. In a 1978 referendum Canberrans had voted no to self-government, but despite this in 1988 the Federal Government passed four bills to make the Territory self-governing and in 1989 the first Legislative Assembly was elected. For the first few years of self-government, power changed hands between the ALP and Liberal Party fairly regularly, with cameo performances by representatives of the paradoxical No Self Government Party, the Residents Rally and the ACT Greens. In 1995 the electoral system was changed, and the Liberal Party has remained firmly entrenched ever since.
Despite self-government, Canberra's fortunes are still tied to the big boys on the hill. The national public service is the city's engine room, and when the Howard Government made severe cutbacks to its numbers in the mid-90s, Canberra really felt the pinch, with businesses throughout the city suffering as public servants stopped spending money. Canberra remains optimistic and daring, though - the Legislative Assembly keeps coming up with ideas no other state government would touch with a barge pole, the Canberra Raiders rugby team continues to shine, and the city's café, music and art scene just keeps getting better.
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