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Canberra was Founded on this Day in 1913
Following Australia’s Federation in 1901, so began years of passionate haggling between politicians – especially those from NSW and Victoria, who argued Sydney or Melbourne should be the rightful capital of Australia. However, a compromise was needed to establish a national capital location that met the requirements of the Australian Constitution (Section 125, to be exact).
According to those rules, the new seat of Government for the Commonwealth of Australia had to be not less than 160 km from Sydney – but not in Sydney, to appease those from other states of Australia.
While this resolved the issue of favouritism between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, it posed a raft of challenges for those in charge of finding just the right site.
Years were spent in search of a location – and consideration was given to sites including Dalgety, Bathurst, Orange, Albury and Bombala. And after plenty of debate, studies and inspections, Canberra was finally chosen as the ideal option in 1909, and legislated in 1911.
Known as Ngunnawal country to the Indigenous people of the region, Canberra was officially named as the capital of Australia on 12 March 1913, which is celebrated each year with Canberra Day.
