The Australian Capital Territory, containing the National Capital of Canberra, is located in the south eastern corner of New South Wales. It is the only state or territory in Australia that does not have a coastline. It lies approximately half way between Sydney and Melbourne. This location was selected in 1908, as it was diplomatically located between arch rivals Sydney and Melbourne, who both wanted to be the capital city of Australia. To satisfy both parties the decided to create another territory half way between each city and declare it the capital of Australia.
The American architect Walter Burley Griffin won an international competition to design the capital city and in 1913 the name Canberra was chosen, as it is aboriginal for ‘Meeting Place’ and this was to be the home of the Australian Parliament where all politicians would meet. Development in the ACT was slow in the early years until around 1927, when parliament was first convened here. The Depression then practically halted development until after WWII. Since then the population in Canberra has grown from 50,000 in 1960 to 100,000 by 1967 and is estimated around 308,000 today.
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