What is the significance of Canberra?

Canberra's significance lies in its role as Australia's national capital, a purpose-built city designed to host the federal Parliament and the symbolic functions of the Commonwealth. It is the only Australian capital that was planned from scratch as a political centre rather than growing organically from a port or a goldfield.

The capital was created by political compromise. After the federation of the colonies on 1 January 1901, Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to host the Commonwealth Parliament. Section 125 of the Australian Constitution settled the dispute by requiring that the capital be in New South Wales but at least 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Sydney. The Yass-Canberra district was selected in 1908, and the Australian Capital Territory was carved out of New South Wales in 1911. Construction of the city began in 1913 to a master plan by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, who won the international design competition.

The city houses the major institutions of Australian national life. Parliament House on Capital Hill, opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 9 May 1988, is where the House of Representatives and the Senate sit. Old Parliament House, used from 1927 to 1988, now hosts the Museum of Australian Democracy. The High Court of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library, the National Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Australian National University, and most foreign embassies are all located in Canberra.

Canberra is also a symbol of Australia's federal compromise and of the country's deliberately distributed institutions. It is the only Australian city designed around a major artificial lake (Lake Burley Griffin, completed 1964), around a Parliamentary Triangle linking Capital Hill, Russell Hill, and City Hill, and around a sequence of national institutions arranged along the lake's shores. The city now has a population of about 470,000 and operates as a self-governing territory with its own Legislative Assembly since 1989.