Ten facts you probably didn’t know about Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
- When the provisional national parliament opened in 1927, it was lumped in the middle of barren-looking paddock.
- Whilst many of Canberra’s streets and suburbs are named after politicians, Callister Street in Theodore pays tribute to a true Australian legend. Dr Cyril Callister was the inventor of Vegemite.
- 137 entries were received from 15 different countries to design Australia’s new capital city in 1912.
- In the language of the Ngunnawal people, Canberra supposedly means either “meeting place” or “women’s breasts”. The former is generally thought correct, although a look at Mt Ainslie and Black Mountain from the right angle would suggest otherwise.
- Whilst American Walter Burley Griffin took all the credit for designing the city, his wife Marion did all the drawings presented to the assessors.
- Before Canberra was finally decided upon, MPs and Senators had recommended Albury, Tumut, Orange and Dalgety as the site for the capital.
- The artificial Lake Burley Griffin was nearly a disaster – they tried to fill it during a drought, and it attracted swarms of mosquitoes.
- If the wrong name had been picked from the nominations list, our capital could now be known as Sydmelperadbrisho, Kangaremu or Gonebroke.
- The 40 metre Douglas Fir that forms the capital’s biggest flagpole was a rather cumbersome gift from Canada. For want of anywhere else big enough, it had to spend several days submerged in Sydney Harbour for quarantine reasons.
- The Captain Cook Memorial Jet on Lake Burley Griffin can send water up to 147m in the air.
Copyright David Whitley
