What was Canberra and when was it established as capital?

Canberra is the capital of Australia and was established as the federal capital after federation in 1901. It is a purpose-built city designed specifically to host the Commonwealth Parliament and federal institutions, and it sits in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), an enclave carved out of New South Wales between Sydney and Melbourne.

The capital location was settled by section 125 of the Australian Constitution, which required that the federal capital be in New South Wales but at least 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Sydney. The section was a compromise between Sydney (which wanted the capital) and Melbourne (which wanted to be the capital but agreed to host Parliament temporarily). The Yass-Canberra district was selected in 1908 after extensive surveying. The Australian Capital Territory was carved from New South Wales in 1911 under the Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909.

Construction began in 1913 to a master plan by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, who won the international design competition. The Griffins' plan was based on a central artificial lake (later called Lake Burley Griffin, completed 1964) with a Parliamentary Triangle linking Capital Hill (Parliament), Russell Hill (Defence), and City Hill (commerce). The plan made extensive use of geometric symbolism, vistas, and integration with the surrounding hills. The Griffins resigned from the project in 1920 because of disagreements with the federal government, but their basic layout remained in place.

Federal Parliament moved to Canberra in 1927, with the Provisional Parliament House (later called Old Parliament House) opened by the Duke of York (later King George VI) on 9 May 1927. The current Parliament House on Capital Hill, designed by Romaldo Giurgola and built between 1981 and 1988, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 9 May 1988, the 75th anniversary of the naming of the capital. Today Canberra has a population of about 470,000 and hosts the federal Parliament, the High Court of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery, the National Library, the National Museum, the Australian National University, and most foreign embassies. The Australian Capital Territory has had its own Legislative Assembly since 1989 and operates as a self-governing internal territory alongside the federal capital functions.