Capital of a nation, home to more buildings from 1970 than 1970 itself, full of bureaucrats, visited by every school student in Australia, so much to do, but not after 5pm.
Australia is famous all over the world for its gorgeous coastline, delightful weather, beautiful beaches, amazing wildlife and spectacular harbours. Funny then, that the nations founders chose to put the national capital in a snow drifted, scorching hole, three hours from the beach.
It happened because of a fight between Sydney and Melbourne. Both were established cities in the late 1800s, both were the capitals of independent British colonies, both had egos roughly the same size as they do now (large) and both thought they deserved to be the capital of Australia. When the nation declared independence from Britain in 1901 it had to have a capital city, and neither Sydney or Melbourne would let the other one have the glory. Luckily, a bright spark in a government office somewhere, someone with the wisdom of Solomon, decided that they'd create a whole new city which could be the capital and they'd put it in the middle of the other two.
Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. In 1911 a competition was held and architects from around the world submitted their plans for the new capital of Australia (not a bad entry on the resume you must admit). An American named Walter Burley Griffin (also known for inventing the carport) won the prize and declared:
" I have planned a city that is not like any other in the world. I have planned it not in a way that I expected any government authorities in the world would accept. I have planned an ideal city - a city that meets my ideal of the city of the future."
...And to his credit, Walter's plan was pretty good. He'd designed a beautiful layout based on groups of circular hilltop centres, with roads radiating down and around them. Running through the centre of town was the Molonglo River. Parliament House was the focal point (up on the main hill in the south of town) and there were roundabouts everywhere. EVERYWHERE. The whole city was designed so that people could easily get around it in motor cars, a concept no one had ever thought of before (remember, the Model T Ford had only just been invented); Walter definitely had his finger on the pulse. The locals however, who were sheep farmers, and had never seen a car before, thought it was a pretty good joke.
Construction on Canberra began and was quickly interrupted by World War I. The Government quickly lost interest in some of the finer points of Walter's design because it had to funnel funds into making bombs and feeding a large army on the other side of the world. Walter got the shits. The Government got the shits with Walter, progress was ridiculously slow, and by 1922 the whole project was in a bit of a shambles. Australia's Parliament House wasn't even opened until 1988, roughly 70 years late.
As the first city to be designed with cars in mind, Canberra is again, on paper, a great place to get around. Lots of circles, sweeping avenues and grand views. In reality it's a bastard of a place. The main town centres are spread out and connected by weird circles, so if you're new in town, you're forever driving for ten minutes and ending up right back where you started. Furthermore, because everything was planned so meticulously, the city had no chance to grow organically. In most modern cities you end up with a haphazard conglomeration of ethnic-towns, trendy modernised former-warehouses, red light districts, cool cafe strips, up-market restaurants and after-work watering holes. Canberra, on the other hand, is neatly divided into pre-programmed, pre-packaged segments: this is where you work; this is where the parliament sits; this is the museum district; this is the park where you ride your bike; this is the park where you jog; this is the park where you walk your dog; this is where you park your car.
There's just no room in the original city for a section full of people's favourite pubs or restaurants, so even on a Friday night, after everyone's had a beer or five at whatever pub they can find (and there's not that many) they all head home and the streets are deserted by about 9pm. It's downright eery, and not much fun if you're a tourist in need of a party. Of course, there's plenty of stuff to do in the day (if you like museums), but unless you really want to get to know the bureaucratic underbelly of Australia, if you're well-travelled, or young, or like to party, you will probably find Canberra quite boring, quite quickly. (If you're British, Canberra is what Milton Keynes would be like if it was home to Big Ben and The British Museum. If you're American, Canberra is like Washington. If you're a Kiwi, Canberra is like your country... Just kidding.)
It's literally freezing in Winter, and almost literally boiling in Summer. Go in Autumn when the leaves are falling, or Spring when things have warmed up a bit.
Canberra is about two hours drive southwest of Sydney along the Hume Highway. Follow the signs, you can't miss it. You can also fly in from Sydney, Melbourne and a few other capital cities, but you're probably better off saving your plane money and seeing something else, or making it part of a road trip between Sydney and Melbourne. No really.
Unlike the evening hours, there's plenty of stuff to do in Canberra during the day. You can visit:
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