This video traces the events relating to the selection of the capital city of Australia around the time of its Federation. It explores the history of Canberra and Australia's journey to choose the site to be its capital city.

TRANSCRIPT (Partial)

For a country famous for its coastal cities and warm climate, how did a relatively small inland settlement got chosen as its capital city?

When the six independent colonies decided to form the new Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, one of the first things on the their To Do list was the selection of a location of the new capital. Fierce debates ensued between representatives of the colonies. The obvious choices were the two biggest cities -- Melbourne and Sydney, but a few other cities such as Adelaide, Hobart, and Ballarat were also suggested.

Melbourne and Sydney both have prominent sea ports and arguments were made that seaports were not ideal as they are vulnerable to enemy attacks from overseas and that this exposure also made them at risk for diseases. These established cities also don’t have the climate being sought by the pioneers of the Federation. The search is on for an inland capital with a bracing climate. More on that later.

George Reid, the New South Wales premiere at the time, a shrewd politician, used the clout of New South Wales being the “motherland colony” to argue that the federal capital has to be located in his home state. This won support at a quote-unquote secret premiers’ conference in Melbourne. However, there is a catch: the capital has to be at least 100 miles away from Sydney. In the meantime, Melbourne would act as the interim capital.

Later that year, the Royal Commission on Sites for the Seat of Government of the Commonwealth was formed. It’s a mouthful but so is the list of sites inspected and considered. Over sixty localities in New South Wales were promoted. Sites along the main railway line from Sydney to Melbourne have an advantage of being accessible to both cities. Sites around Albury in the far south of the state were deemed to be too close to Melbourne while sites such as Armidale and Tamworth, were considered too far from Sydney and obviously further away from Melbourne.

Over the next eight years, Federal Capital Leagues sprouted like mushrooms and local politicians from a number of towns across New South Wales vied for their localities to be considered. Some promoted their towns to have magical proofs of local health and longevity or have incredible variety of produce coming out of the soil.

In 1902, senators and members of the House of Representatives, took a series of tours to several sites. Come voting time for the Federal Territory Bill, the House of Representatives selected Tumut, a charming cattle district, but there was suspicion that the selection was more due to politics than merit given that the runner-up Lyndhurst, was considered too close to Sydney. The bill came to the senate who then voted for Bombala, likely motivated by the desire to stall the selection of the site -- and stalled it was, for a compromise was not made and the bill eventually lapsed.

After another four bills and three Parliaments, the decision kept getting deferred, but over time one site became the frontrunner. Dalgety had many things going for it: the presence of the Snowy River, a location halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, and its bracing climate.

Let’s zoom in on that last criteria of climate -- in particular, BRACING climate. Federal officials were looking for a place with cooler temperatures than the average Australian coastal city for two possible reasons.

In the early 20th century there was a popular scientific belief -- Environmental Determinism -- which suggests that cooler climates were thought to have helped produce the best races with the best brains. A less controversial reason is that cold mountain air was thought to be good for the health and therefore recuperative.

Dalgety was on its way to be formally designated as a capital, but the New South Wales government thought it was too remote and instead rallied for sites closer to Sydney. Finally, in 1908, a site which ticks all the right boxes was selected: water supply via the Cotter and Molonglo Rivers, picturesque mountains as fortification, just over a 100 miles from Sydney, and of course a bracing climate. The Yass-Canberra site will be the location of the new capital.

Over the next hundred years, the site would slowly and steadily built itself up to fullfill its role as the capital of the new federation. A hundred years back, it has also inspired hundreds of suggestions for its name. That list included ‘Cookaburra’, ‘Wheatwoolgold’ and ‘Kangaremu’. A couple of other imaginative names were ‘Sydmelperadbrisho’ and ‘Meladneyperbane’. A name was picked by the cabinet and was kept secret until it was officially unveiled by Lady Denman on 12th March 1913, declaring “I name the capital of Australia, Canberra – the accent is on the Can.”

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