Australia's underwhelming capital
We need to talk about Canberra, the landlocked capital of this coast-hugging land.
I should state from the outset that I don't happen to agree with the hoary old joke that the best view of the city comes in the rear-view mirror as you head back to Sydney or Melbourne. Parts of it are stunningly beautiful.
But on a national scorecard that is replete with green and gold stars, you are left with the feeling that Canberra merits only a "could do better".
Put another way, if cities were cars then Melbourne would probably be an Audi (a European feel, well designed and well engineered) and Sydney would probably be a 1970s MG convertible (a bit flash, fabulous in the summer, but prone to occasional breakdowns).
Canberra has something of the Skoda about it, albeit with some pretty fancy add-ons, like the new Parliament House which celebrates its 21st birthday this very week.
Canberra strikes me as oddly unAustralian, to use that dreadful expression. It isn't by the sea (in locating the capital, there were concerns about possible naval bombardment in the event of invasion... which brings to mind what Betjeman said about Slough).
It isn't a whole heap of fun and is devoid of much personality. In fact, large swathes of it are so very quiet it seems almost as if they have been hit by a neutron bomb, eradicating all the people but leaving the buildings intact.
Its original design was the brainchild of an American, the Chicago landscape architect and Frank Lloyd Wright-protege, Walter Burley Griffin.
Its post-war expansion was left to the British town planner, Sir William Holford, who based it on the soulless British "new town" concept.
No wonder Canberra is often called a group of stray suburbs looking for a city.
Fabulously, prime ministers, like Barton and Deakin, have suburbs named after them. Others, presumably, only rise to the level of cul-de-sac.
Not for Canberra the polished marble and Doric columns of Washington DC, which memorialises its fabled presidents with brooding statuettes.
Even the parliament relies on the "Washminster" system, a hybrid of the British and American models. It comes with a House of Representatives and Senate, but also with a Question Time and dispatch boxes.
Fair dinkum, as they say. Canberra has come a long way from being "a bush-capital in no-man's land", as it was described in 1909, when the compromise was reached between Melbourne and Sydney over where to site the capital.
But it has not quite lived up to the boast at the time that it "would rival London in beauty and Athens in art".
But at least the name works. When suggestions initially were canvassed, they ranged from "Olympus" to "Paradise", from "Spamb" to "Tasmelbawalqueen", a devilishly clever acronym, I think you will agree, of the states or the state capitals.
Does any of this matter? To many Australians, I suspect, not at all.
But Canberra may be one of the many reasons why Australia can be a surprisingly fragmented and stunted country - with intense rivalries between the states and angry arguments still over what constitutes the "national interest" (just look at the management of the Murray-Darling basin).
If Canberra engendered more of an emotional or awe-inspiring pull - or captured the national imagination in the same way as, say, Washington DC (another compromise capital) - then Australia might be more cohesive.
Instead, the country has a few rival capitals and vital centres of power: Melbourne (sporting and intellectual), Sydney (cultural, hedonistic, media and, arguably, business) and Perth (resources).
Some might think this complete tosh. Others might agree with Christian Kerr, a political reporter with The Australian: "The city that was supposed to be a focus for the nation has no focus at itself.
"Canberra does not represent the nation. It is a place most Australians neither know about nor care about. And with good reason, too."
ECONOMIC INDICATORS OF THE WEEK: The head of Macquarie Group, the fabled "millionaire's factory", took an almost 99% pay cut because of a 52% slump in profits. Unemployment went down rather than up. 5.4% in April from 5.7% in March. Economists had predicted a 6-year high of 5.9%.
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Paul Keating had the view that we should just give up on Canberra and move the capital to Sydney. I totally agree - Canberra has had decade after decade to become a national capital to be proud of, as well as pots and pots of money from the federal government, and it's still the same empty, slightly depressing city that it has been forever.
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When people visit Australia I always advise them to spend two days and one night in Canberra. No more and no less.
Canberra has a number of attractions that give you a great insight in the history and culture of Australia. The museums are excellent and the War Memorial and both Houses of Parliament are really interesting. Two days is enough to see a good few of those sights.
And one night is as long as you can survive on the bar snacks from your hotel, as there really isn't anywhere to eat out in Canberra.
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I think Canberra is quite underrated. However, it could do many more things to make it more live-able. Better night-life and more exhibitions.
My family and I love it when we are there. Some of the cafes and restaurants are great, better than suburban Sydney (Ottomans comes to mind). Sure things close early but there is something to do, the National Gallery, Lake B.G. and outdoor activities. Its much more relaxed and less pretentious than Sydney.
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I'd suggest the problem with Canberra is population. Great, interesting cities are generally more populous than Canberra is, or, at the least, have a greater population density or regional population. Canberra is, at heart, a large provincial city, and not a capital, as it doesn't have the strong regional focus a capital does.
It doesn't really have a feeder region: Sydney has the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands full of smaller centres which feed into Sydney. Canberra, on the other hand, has Queanbeyan, and, if we're generous, Yass.
If there was a concerted effort to ensure more people moved to Canberra, making the city centre more dense, and ensuring it was a city of substance instead of a city where most of the population is employed in public service, it could easily meet its potential as a great city. For the moment, on the other hand, I'm quite content spending my time in this fair city, even if there are times when it feels deserted (Saturday and Sunday nights) or bland, for the mere fact that parts of it are beautiful and the whole place seems very relaxed.
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In relation to the notion that Canberra has something to do with National cohesion is very misinformed. The city is purely a seat of Government and nothing else. Australians can be very cohesive when required as has been well demonstrated by the recent bush fires in Victoria. Your comment about Washminster I find slightly offensive, I am glad that our founding fathers did not adopt the full Westminster system whereby the vote was governed by property ownership, an unusual concept of democracy.
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Canberra has been given an unfair wrap. Canberra cannot be expected to compete with a city the size of London or Athens with the population base that exists in the city. For a city of roughly 350,000 people Canberra fairs quite well.
Canberra has a number of quality establishments to eat at (For example Ottomans, Sammys Kitchen, Tongue and Groove), it has a solid nightlife (particularly on Thursday - Saturday nights), and a myriad of cultural establishments. However as Canberra does not have the same layout as other Australian cities (due to the 'planned city concept') and due to this it often receives criticism, particularly from Sydneysiders, who complain that there is nothing in the town. Restaurants, nightclubs, and other such establishments are found not of the main boulevards (of which Canberra has many), but tucked away in often unexpected places.
The underlying issue that Canberra faces is its density. Canberra has one tenth the population of Melbourne, but is one third of the geographical size. This means that large portions of the population choose not to congregate in the city centre itself, but instead in the 'district centres' of Tuggeranong, Woden and Belconnen which are closer to their homes. Canberra's city centre will become livelier as in-filling takes place. The city centre itself has transformed dramatically over the past five years, and will continue do to so for at least the next five with numerous building projects commencing in the city centre (particularly city west).
Canberra is a city very different to other Australian cities. Due to its layout and density, visitors to the city (particularly Sydneysiders) ignorantly label the city as "soulless" and "lifeless", when in reality it is quite the opposite. In Canberra one will find the roots of Australia's cultural history and if one looks in the right places they might just enjoy themselves!
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Keep Canberra the way it is. I enjoy the tranquility of the empty streets in Canberra. As a capital where politics plays out on ground level, Canberra is unique in that heated debates and hostilities rarely extend outside the parliament.
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You don't need a swanky capitol city as a focus for a nation and its pride. What you DO need is a set of honest and reputable representatives to govern sincerely on behalf of the residents.
If your elected representatives are not living in an oasis-cum-cultural-honeypot, they will focus more easily on what their purpose is in Canberra.
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Canberra has had more than enough time to establish itself as a capital, and it has failed. It's time to move the capital of Australia back to Melbourne, which is the only city in Australia with sufficent stature and depth to be a worthy capital city.
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Your connection to Washington DC is pretty accurate. Ask most American's which three cities they could go to free of charge and they'd probably pick New York City, San Fran/LA & Chicago, a few patriotic souls may throw in DC but not many. Ask an Aussie and we'd most likely say Sydney, Melbourne & Perth/Brisbane.
The Capital is always viewed as the place where our tax money goes and where a bunch of suits make decisions that usually dissapoint us so its viewed as a bad thing.
I live in SW Sydney, so only 2hrs drive to Canberra and I always make an effort to get down there once a year even as a tourist, the War Memorial is beautiful and is the best museum/memorial in our country. Parliament is worth a visit and alongside that there is a cool zoo, a cheap lookout tower, beautiful parks and gardens sitting by a lake, a number of cool museums on money, science, the nation. What it lacks is a shopping heart but you can get that in the suburbs. Canberra is a beautiful city in the autumn and spring thanks to its surrounding bushland.
Apart from the War Memorial, I must say, my favourite memory of Canberra was always heard on Channel 9 news when reporter Peter Harvey would end the political story with.... Peter Harvey.....KANBRA
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The comments about Sydney/Melb above demonstrate why the capital can't move (unless maybe to Darwin?). You'd have so much stick from all the other state capital residents, directed at whoever ended up with the status, plus a the world's biggest White Elephant.
I'm hoping to visit the place soon, and find out what all the fuss isn't about. An Un-Australian city might not be a bad thing for a change (maybe Melbourne fits that description too?)
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That Melbourne is still a contender with Sydney for anything proves that Canberra is serving it's role. You seem to like centralisation, Nick? Is that really a good thing though - look at London's dominance of the UK; Paris of France; Moscow of Russia, etc.
Here in Japan where I live, the second city Osaka long ago received a bloody knockout blow from Tokyo and no high speed trains or construction largess will bring it to its feet.
The car analogy is a good one but I think Sydney is the authentic Australian city: an old Monaro or Torana perhaps.
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I've never been, but doesn't Canberra have Australias best university (ANU)? I always assumed it would be full of students, but I guess I was very wrong.
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Nick -
Canberra has really only been around since the early 20th century, you can't seriously expect it to spring to live and be teeming with millions of people in the relatively short space of a century.
Albert Speer in his book 'Inside the Third Reich' noted that Hitler looked at Washington DC and Canberra as examples of 'what not to do' when re-developing Berlin in its facist architecture style. Personally, I couldn't disagree more.
Like Brasilia, Canberra is unique *because* it is a planned city on a continent of unplanned, sprawling cities. I find it extraordinary that we have as our national capital an entire city purpose designed and built to be the seat of national government. Is that not extraordinary?
I think that Canberra has an elegance about it - long leafy boulevards, fascinating architecture, a symmetry.
However, after World Youth Day and APEC, I just wish it was used more for its specific purpose!
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I get a little tired of what has become known as "Canberra bashing". It is all too easy, usually without merit and, these days, terribly unoriginal.
Canberra is one of the nicest places I have lived; it is a beautiful city and due to it's population density and well-planned design it is also the easiest cities I have lived in. It may appear to have no one on the streets but that is only because WBG designed a city with no traffic congestion! Why would you want that? It's such a pain in the bum getting around Sydney or Melbourne.
Nightlife and restaurants are quite spread out so new visitors may feel like nothing is happening but locals know where and how to have a good night out - and they are certainly nowhere near the daytime tourist spots (Parli house, Museum, Galleries etc) keeping these spots tidy for visitors. We are lucky to have more restaurants and cafes per capita than any other city in Australia due, in part, to a fairly large percentage of our population being 20-30something public servants and students. And I was recently in Melbourne on a Saturday night and found myself hunting around for a pub open after midnight (most of Canberra's nightspots are open very late Thursday-Saturday (4am)) and late on Sunday afternoon South Melbourne was desolate...
I am quite glad we aren't like Washington - with ghettos and a high murder rate - don't most people who work in DC live in other states?
I'm sure our national media do not help Canberra's image when journalists refer to Canberra when they mean the Federal Government (I, personally, did not make any parliamentary decisions this week - but apparently "Canberra" did).
The weather is spectacular - a touch cold in winter perhaps, but it rarely rains and we currently enjoy more days of sunshine than any other city in Oz (unfortunately this is because we are in the middle of quite a long drought).
I'm bored with the same old poorly-researched comments about Canberra from people who have spent only a day or two to make an assessment.
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Canberra's nice enough. Great galleries, museums and some impressive buildings.
But there isn't a great deal going on.
Sorry, but the night life is terrible. I'm used to King's cross and George St on a Saturday night, and Canberra has nothing like that.
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#15 said it all. I grew up in Canberra and, while I choose not to live there now, the sheer ignorance about the place from others is truly astounding. Everything BrewBloke wrote is spot on.
#2 - nowhere to eat out in Canberra?? You must be joking. If aything, its problem is far too many restuarnts (and facilities) in general for its population. Many of which are top class, award winning establishments.
The thing about Canberra is that it is too well managed, has better infrastructure and more facilities than it needs. For the people who live there, that's great - it makes everything about daily life that much easier (even if a 6 lane road with 3 cars on it is more than a touch ridiculous). But to people from Sydney and Melbourne (or dare I say, London) passing through, it is such an anathema to their every instinct they just don't know what's going on ... so they decide it must be a bad thing & denigrate.
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Canberrans love the place - and we don't care what anyone thinks. Great academic institutions, collecting institutions (and we're still classed as "regional" for subsidised tours from the big cities!), brilliant musicians, vistas, bush mountains right nearby ... rugby or talks at Manning Clark House, take your pick ... and we're not ON the beach but we all either have houses at the wonderful beaches just over an hour away ... or borrow them from friends ...
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I was in Canberra over summer for 2 days this year, mostly to see the Degas exhibition at the National Gallery. It is a lovely place, but one thing I learned was that its not a city designed for pedestrians! Public transport is very poor. I'll either drive up from Melbourne, or I'll hire a car. Some tram routes on their lovely wide roads would be really great for locals & tourists alike!
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I've tried to like Canberra. I've tried not to be a Canberra basher, but after ten years I have yet to find much to back up the defensive claims made by residents for the place. Where are these eateries and bars they keep boasting about? Why hide them from the casual visitor (ie the rest of humanity)? And why don't they create some paths for real people. On my last visit I foolishly tried to go from A (hotel) to B (conference centre) in a direct line rather than taking a 2km tour around a roundabout. Now I know what Burk and Wills went through. I crashed through bush, I climbed steep embankments, I dodged motorway traffic and got lost in a carpark. Meanwhile the smug Canberrans either use their government-funded car to get around or jog about the place. They are so smug and self righteous, I can't stand them. Or their city.
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I've always thought that a quote from the great American songwriter Harry Chapin, describing a country town in the states, sums up Canberra pefectly "I spent a week there one afternoon"
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Canberra, manages to make the Kiwi capital Wellington look and feel like New York City!
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There's a kind of subculture in Canberra amongst the over forties, I once saw this when they descended en masse to a weekend talk on natural sequence farming and they were asking questions about growing organic artichokes and building biodynamic dunnies in their backyards. Most were dressed in wide linen pants and alpaca cardigans and sipping elderberry tisane. They seemed disappointed to find the talk was about blocking and flooding creeks and involved considerable manual labour
It's a reaction to working in the same office for 20 years.
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A fairly lazy piece of writing I have to say Nick, and typical of the "fly-in, visit Parliamentary triangle, fly-out" school of tourist journalism about Canberra. If you visit Canberra expecting London or Athens then you will be let down, that's a guarantee. Why you would visit a town of 350,000 in the Australian bush and expect London though is beyond me.
I urge you to visit again Nick, this time looking for what is here, rather than what is not. You nearly got the point with your snide references to the suburbs. Instead of saying "the city is dead, it's just suburbs", try visiting them. The cafes, bars and restaurants that fill (particularly the inner) Canberra suburbs are amazing, and we don't need to spend hours in traffic to get to them.
RE: Melbourne or Sydney as the capital. Those comments merely highlight the reason Canbera was chosen in the first place. "Sydney is best", "No! Melbourne is best!", "No! Sydney!". *yawn*
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I quite liked it during visits - the National Gallery is fantastic - but one thing pointed out to me was very odd. Away from the central area, shops and shopping strips hidden away; 'designed out' from public view. There's something terribly bourgeois about that.
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Nick, it doesn't fail to impress me.
My grandfather first took me to Canberra in 1958 when sheep use to graze where the lake is now.
I've watched it grow from a town of 15,000 to a city of over 320,000.
I've listened to foreigners like you and my fellow Australians whinge about the city while at the same time flocking to it in the holidays to visit it's buildings and Museums.
I guess if you are use to the cities of tired old Europe, it may seem a bit antiseptic, but wait, it'll grow more "used" as the years go by.
Canberra is like Australia; it shows great promise but is a bit brash and very young.
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Lay off the Skoda comparisons, y'drongo. They're very good cars and always have been, despite the dreadful 25-yeart lapse of R&D brought about by Hitler and Stalin. If Canberra's anything, it's a Holden, outdated, clumsy, but tough and very Oz, capable of surviving a lot more than most touchy-feely Euro shopping trolleys.
However, it's nice to see the Beeb attempting humour; all you have to do now, Nickers, is get it into the right millenium....
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I spent 5 years studying in Canberra and loved it. Canberra does have great cafes and restaurants, you just need to know where to find them - they are where people live, which means no where near parliament. The bars are also spread out, but are open late and are generally have a lot of style. The city is also very young - 30,000 students (ANU and UC) and lots of public servants taking graduate rolls every year.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Canberra will remain Australia's national capital. In the future we will most likely dissolve the state governments and just have a federal government and regional governments. Hopefully this will encourage people to move to the regional areas and hopefully less people will live in Sydney and Melbourne. We need to decentralize out of our current capital cities more, not make one of the largely populated ones a national capital, which would only encourage more people to move into it.
I would like a team of the world's best architects and artists to have a look at Canberra and come up with ideas to make it more aesthetically pleasing and interesting. It needs more outdoor water features and great exterior lighting, it needs to have a lot more open air art and sculptures, more stonework, statues and gardens. These additions need to reflect Australian culture, because even though culture is fluid, it should be captured at various moments in time so that it can be reflected on in the future.
Currently, Canberra just looks like a large paddock that is just as ackward to traipse around on foot in.
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It is a very symbolically planned city, with geographic roads from all capitals coming together into Parliament House, which is also symbolically designed with the Houses of Parliament underneath a hill of grass, and a flagpole that doesn't actually touch it.
In its urban planning and its architectural design, it embodies principles which have the potential to link all the disparate occupants of the country together.
On my frequent visits I have quite enjoyed the city, and though many may call it 'lifeless', I would simply call it 'different' and built for a special purpose. Only time will tell if it evolves into something else, but I find myself agreeing with the underlying intent and framework of the city.
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truefully I don't care what people say about Canberra, as you can see from the comments everyone who lives there or has lived there loves it.
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Canberra is a very good place, i live here and i love it! it has the best standard of living in the country anyway. Oh and its about as far from the beach as western Sydney is.
I wish you Aussies who didn't live here would stop whinging about it being boring blah blah blah, its comparable to calling Tasmania inbred....
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Actually I find the comparison between Canberra and London to be quite apt. Here in Scotland, cities tend to have a very distinct city centre, so when I visited London for the first time I had to be told, don't think of London as a city, think of it as a country with no space between the towns.
Canberra is the same (except that there is lots of space and not a lot of people), and so it challenges the preconceptions of visitors. The problem people seem to be having with Canberra is that they go to the city centre and there's not a great deal there, which is because there are equally large 'town centres' spread around the city. It might not be a great plan for a visitor, but it's beneficial to those that actually live there.
In fact the only thing I'd say about it is that it's not an easy city to walk around because of how spread out it is, and the population density is too low to support a comprehensive public transport system.
#17 - your comment about the roads made me laugh. My cousin, who lives in Canberra, claims that Canberra has the best roads in the country, and consequently the worst drivers in the country.
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No, if Canberra was a car it would of course be a white Toyota Camry. Sydney ? Something flashy and Italian that breaks down all the time.
Adelaide would be a grey Hillman Minx, and Hobart perhaps something from Eastern Europe made from chipboard.
You want dull ? Try Darwin.
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