History of the Australian Capital Territory

Categories: History of the Australian Capital Territory

The History of the Australian Capital Territory details the Australian Capital Territory's development from before white settlement to Canberra's planning by the Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin and subsequent development to the present day. The Territory was established specifically for the purpose of building a capital city for Australia following Federation in 1901, and the history of the territory as a political entity formally began when the territory was selected in 1908 as the site for the capital city of Australia was ceeded to the Government of Australia by the Government of New South Wales by a Act passed in the Parliament of Australia in 1909.

Aboriginal presence

Before European settlement, the area which eventually become the Australian Capital Territory was inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Walgalu tribes. The Ngarigo lived south-east of the ACT, the Gundungurra to the north, the Yuin on the coast and the Wiradjuri to the west. Archaeological evidence suggests human habitation of the area for at least 21,000 years.

The Ngunnawal had at least two burial grounds, a northern limestone cave and a cave in what is now known as Mt Tennant. At least in some cases, dead aboriginals were buried in a sitting position.

The Bogong Moths were an important source of food for the Aboriginal people, which would collect in their thousands in caves and rock crevices; they were roasted in sand or ashes and eaten whole.

European exploration and settlement

European exploration began in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. Four successive expeditions whose routes took in the Canberra area were those of Charles Throsby Smith (1820), Charles Throsby (1821), Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie (1823) and Allan Cunningham (1824). All four expeditions explored the area of the Molonglo River that is now Lake Burley Griffin. Smith and Cunningham also went further south to what is now called the Tuggeranong Valley.

White settlement in the area can be said to have begun in 1824, when a homestead or station was built in what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by Joshua John Moore. He formally purchased the site in 1826, and named the property Canberry, or Canberra. But he never visited the site.

Other stations were built in turn by other settlers. Initially, these were owned by absentee landlords, but later families moved in. The first white child born in the area was a daughter born to the Macpherson family in 1830.

There were a number of these families that achieved status in the area. These included the Campbell family, the Ainslie family and the Palmer family. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, there was a conflict between two of these families - the Johnstons (descended from Major George Johnston who was involved in the Rum Rebellion) and the Martins - for the ownership and financial control of land which is now known as Weston Creek and Tuggeranong.

The Campbells, and their patriach, Robert Campbell, were particularly influential. The Campbells were Scottish and brought many other Scots to the district as workers. The land that they owned included Duntroon House that is now the Officers Mess at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Yarralumla and the Oaks Estate. The lattermost got its name from a mansion built there by Campbell called the Oaks. When the Campbell family later sold the land it was on for subdivision and development, it was on condition that the Oaks and the land that it was on remain intact and unrenamed respectively. There are still members of the Campbell family living in Canberra.

The European population in the Canberra area continued to slowly grow throughout the rest of the 19th century. One prominent building, the Anglican St John's Church, was consecrated and opened for use in 1845. This building still stands today. A schoolhouse was also attached to this building. By 1851, there were about 2500 people living in the area - a vast majority of which were stockmen. Some convict labour was also used in this area in the 1830s and 1840s.

The settlers dealt totally on agriculture, both crops and livestock, for survival. The weather there was said to be harsh, and drownings in rivers was a fairly common occurrence. Victims of drowning included the first rector of the St John's Church.

Blundells' Cottage was built in the 1860s, by the first European settlers of Canberra.

The private township of Hall and the town of Queanbeyan were established in the mid to late 19th century.

The Aboriginal population dwindled as the European presence increased, mainly from diseases such as smallpox and measles. Another reason was that their ability to hunt and therefore survive was impeded by homesteads being placed on their hunting grounds. By 1862, they had been largely reduced to half-castes. They held their last full corroboree by the Molonglo River in that year. By 1878, the Aboriginal culture and population had largely ceased to exist, with its members largely absorbed into European culture through half-caste marriages. The last full-blood Aboriginal, Nellie "Queen Nellie" Hamilton, died in Queanbeyan in 1897.

The name of Canberra, as well as several derivatives, continued to see some use throughout the 19th century to refer to what is now North Canberra. The local Aboriginals of this time also tended to refer to themselves as the Camberra or Camberri people.

Choice for capital city location

The district's change from a New South Wales rural area to the national capital began during debates over Federation in the early 20th century. At the time, Melbourne was easily Australia's largest city and the obvious place for the capital. The western colonies—Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria—supported Melbourne. However, NSW (the largest colony) and (to a lesser extent) Queensland, favoured Sydney—which was older than Melbourne and the only other large city in Australia. Perhaps one or another of the two colonial capitals might have eventually been acceptable to the smaller states, but the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry was such that neither city would ever agree to the other one becoming capital.

Eventually, a compromise was reached: Melbourne would be the capital on a temporary basis while a new capital was built somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne. Section 125 of the Constitution specified that it must be north of the Murray River (placing it in NSW rather than Victoria) but at least 100 miles from Sydney.

After an extensive search, the present site, about 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney in the foothills of the Australian Alps, was chosen in 1908 as a result of survey work done by Government Surveyor Charles Scrivener in that year^[1]. Two persons who campaigned strongly for the Federal capital to be in the Canberra area were John Gale, the publisher of the Queanbeyan Age and Federal politician King O'Malley. The choice of site was a disputed one, and narrowly beat Dalgety, a small town near the NSW/Victoria border.

The present site was chosen in 1908^[2], with additional territory at Jervis Bay (now a naval base on the NSW coast) allocated so the national capital could have a sea port. In 1909 New South Wales transferred the land for the territory to federal control and in 1910 an act of parliament created the legal framewrok for the territory^[3][4]. The politician King O'Malley responsible for the legislation creating the ACT, also passed a law later that year making the ACT an alcohol-free area. In 1911 an international design competition was held, which was won by Walter Burley Griffin. The official naming of Canberra and its official construction began on March 12, 1913.

The Federal Government officially moved to the ACT from Melbourne on the formal opening of the Provisional Parliament House on 9 May 1927. Among the new parliament's first acts was the repealing of the prohibition laws. At first the public service continued to be based in Melbourne, but the various departments were gradually moved to Canberra over the years.

The territory was initially known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In 1938, the territory was formally named the Australian Capital Territory.

Self government

Despite a 1978 referendum where Canberrans rejected self government by 63% of the vote ^[5], in December 1988, the ACT was granted full self-government through an Act of the Commonwealth Parliament that made the ACT a body politic under the crown^[6]. Following the first elections in February 1989, a 17-member Legislative Assembly sat at its offices in London Circuit, Civic, on May 11, 1989. The Australian Labor Party formed the ACT's first government, led by the Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, who made history as Australia's first female head of government.

Recent hisotry

In the 1990s, a number of activities which are illegal in other Australia states were decriminalised in the Australian Capital Territory. This included the personal use of cannabis decriminalised in 1992^[7], legalised prostitution and brothels in 1992, although permitted only to the suburbs of Mitchell and Fyshwick^[8], legalised trade in pornographic videos in 1995^[9], and the sale of fireworks, although this is restricted to only being allowed before the Queen's Birthday Holiday.

References

1. ^ National Archives of Australia - Seat of Government Act 1908 (Cth)
2. ^ National Archives of Australia - Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909 (Cth)
3. ^ National Archives of Australia - Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910 (Cth)
4. ^ Parliament@Work - At a Glance Australian Capital Territory
5. ^ National Archives of Australia - Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth)
6. ^ marijuananews.com - Legality of Cannabis in Australia
7. ^ Pastornet - Prostitution In The National Capital
8. ^ Shanghaistar - Australia: centre of pornography