History of The Australian Capital Territory - Search For A Capital City Location

Search For A Capital City Location

The district's change from a New South Wales rural area to the national capital began with the debates over Federation during the 19th century. Prior to 1840 Sydney was the administrative centre for the colony, and thus it could be presupposed that any potential federal government would be seated there. However, this started to change when, buoyed by the Victorian Gold Rush, Melbourne grew rapidly, and by 1860 its population had overtaken that of Sydney. The discovery of gold also helped to increase Melbourne's financial base, to the point where at one stage "nearly 5% of all British imperial government revenue ... passed through port". Thus Melbourne soon possessed both the size and the economic clout to rival Sydney and to command additional administrative powers.

When federation was first being discussed, views differed about the location of the capital. Early advocate for Australian federation, John Dunmore Lang, backed Sydney, but Henry Parkes, a prominent New South Wales politician and Premier, proposed the capital be founded on "neutral ground", nominating the town of Albury as a location. (Albury was located in New South Wales, yet its position on the Murray River placed it on the border between New South Wales and Victoria).

In 1898, a referendum on a proposed Constitution was held in four of the colonies – New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Although the referendum achieved a majority in all four colonies, the New South Wales referendum failed to gain the minimum number of votes needed for the bill to pass. Following this result, a meeting of the four Premiers in 1898 heard from George Reid, the Premier of New South Wales, who argued that locating the future capital in New South Wales would be sufficient to ensure the passage of the Bill. This was accepted by the other three Premiers, and the proposed Australian Constitution was modified so that Section 125 specified that the national capital must be "within the state of New South Wales". However, they also added the condition that it must be situated no less than 100 mi (160.9 km) from Sydney. In addition, if the bill passed, Melbourne would be the interim seat of government (but not referred to as the "capital") until a location for the new capital had been determined. The 1899 referendum on this revised bill was successful, passing with sufficient numbers.

Nevertheless, this left open the question of where to locate the capital. Initially the Bombala district in the far south of NSW was proposed, to which southern Monaro, (which incorporated Bombala), Orange and Yass were soon added. The NSW Premier, John See, offered to provide any of the three recommended sites as a future capital territory. Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of the new Federal government, added another four sites to this list: Albury, Tamworth, Armidale and Tumut, and members of the new government toured the various sites in 1902. The tour proved inconclusive, and upon their return the members decided to refer the problem to a Royal Commission, with the Minister for Home Affairs, William Lyne, pushing for Tumut or Albury as he preferred a site in his electorate. Subsequently, the Commission presented its report to parliament in 1903, recommending the sites of Albury, Tumut and Orange, in that order. However, there continued to be problems, as the House of Representatives backed the Tumut option, while the Senate preferred the town of Bombala. As a result of this disagreement the bill lapsed, and it was left to the second Parliament to choose a location for the capital.

The new Parliament met in 1904 and reached a compromise, choosing Dalgety, which, like Bombala, was located in the Monaro region. Thus, with the passage of the Seat of Government Act 1904, it appeared that the matter had been settled. However, while the Federal Parliament supported Dalgety, the New South Wales government did not, and they proved unwilling to cede the amount of territory the federal government demanded.

Finally, in 1906, New South Wales agreed to cede sufficient land, but on the condition that it was in the Yass-Canberra region, this site being closer to Sydney. Following a tour of the region by several Senators and Members of the Commonwealth Parliament, in 1908 a new ballot was called in the Federal Parliament with eleven sites nominated. Initially, Dalgety remained at the forefront, but by the eighth round Yass-Canberra had emerged as a new leader, and the site was confirmed in the ninth round of voting. Thus was passed the new Seat of Government Act 1908, which repealed the 1904 Act and specified a capital in the Yass-Canberra region.

Government Surveyor Charles Scrivener was deployed to the region in the same year in order to map out a specific site and, after an extensive search, settled upon the present location, about 300 km (186.4 mi) south-west of Sydney in the foothills of the Australian Alps.