Canberra? A great mistake..??

Paul Keating takes a bit of a pot shot at Canberra,.....


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26247907-5013404,00.html

........"Mr Keating said the national capital should have been in Sydney or Melbourne, despite Victorian architecture he once described as Whorehouse Rococo or Bordello Baroque.

Professing his love for Melbourne, he said: "I would have been very happy for the national parliament to be here; one can conduct a proper life here.

"Living in motels in Canberra is no fun. Going to the Chinese restaurant in Manuka -- it's got its limitations."

He said Sydney's Garden Island would also have been a good place for the national parliament. "We still own it; we can still do it," he said".......




I reckon Canberra is perfect. A city to be proud of. Must have been hard in the early years getting started in a brand new place. And how would the debate about whether Sydney or Melbourne as the nations capital ever be settled?

A few other places were considered for the capital. Obviously Sydney and Melbourne, then Dalgetty, Cooma, Lake George, being between Sydney and Melbourne, and even Armidale in northern NSW was considered, being between Sydney and Brisbane.


See ya's.
 
The capital city of Australia shouldn't be so remote.

It should be a bustling place of trade and commerce, with ports, massive infrastructure, self sufficient and car-less.

it should be the standard that all of Australian cities aspire to be.

but no - we got parliament house and a territory full of 99 year leases.
 
The capital city of Australia shouldn't be so remote.

It should be a bustling place of trade and commerce, with ports, massive infrastructure, self sufficient and car-less.

.


Canberra's not remote. It's just hours from Sydney and Melbourne by car. It's smack in the middle of the heaviest populated part of the continent.

Why does it have to be bustling with trade and commerce? That's what the rest of the country is for. It's full of public servants running the country, and the industries that support them.

Self sufficient..?? What place anywhere is self sufficient with anything? Every part of the nation relys on every other city and part of the country to be supplied with power, food, fuel, water. etc.

Carless..?? OK, that may have been a good idea. But one reason I like Canberra is it's such a spread out, sprawling place, however it's well set up for pushbikes. That's got to be better than the congestion of most other really big cities? Any carless city would have to be a very densely populated place I'd think. No need for Canberra to ever be densely populated.


See ya's
 
people need to learn their history - part of the yr 6 ciriculum.

The only reason canberra was created was because at the time of federation the states could not reach consensus on whether Melbourne or Sydney should be the nations Capital (so both places were considered "worthy" of being the capital). Because the states refused to agree on this issue, it was decided that a NEW National Capital City would be created partway between both Sydney and Melbourne - Thus Canberra was created.

So of course either Sydney or Melbourne would have been fine to be our Nation's capital (my vote would have been Sydney, because it is so iconic), but Canberra was the compromise. And personally, i don't think it is all that bad ;)
 
It should be a bustling place of trade and commerce, with ports, massive infrastructure, self sufficient and car-less.

it should be the standard that all of Australian cities aspire to be.

why?

in my opinion the capital should be just couple of buildings where pollies work, eat and sleep, plus embassies.
 
Canberra is good but it should be at the centre of the continent e.g. Alice Springs. the history of this country is too short to be concerned with where the largest population base currently is.
 
because a capital city should be something to be proud of, to be displayed, to be advertised internationally, to be the focal point of philosophy and arts and politics and be everything thing that is great about democracy and large society in general.

it should be somewhere that sets the standard for the rest of the country, a city that never sleeps, a city with flexible work hours and creche workplaces and roof top terraces and walls of gardens and.........i'm wasting my breath. i forget this is tall poppy country.
 
Hey BC its all of those things with out the dense population,i have a room for you to stay if you ever want to visit, and learn what a great place it is, ;)
 
canberra ain't a bad place. it does have it's own issues though but so does just about every city in the world. nowhere is perfect.

The life and culture of Canberra has changed dramatically in the last 10 years or so and the once sterile, soul-less reputation that Canberra used to have is now gone.

However it is a difficult city to get around in. The wide open and spread out places make it difficult for those without a car. Public transport is next to useless, transport between the other cities is very limited, and the open spaces make it prohibitive for the lazy traveller. Plus, to the inexperienced, finding a servo is very very hard.

On a personal level, i find the mall lifestyle of Canberra is to be very annoying. I would much prefer the multizoned strip shopping and nightlife aspects of a city - but having said that, the cultural and educational and aesthetic aspects of Canberra are simply incredible.

But alas, mention Canberra to many people outside of Asutralia and they have never heard of it. The vast majority of the world's population thinks Sydney is the capital.

We, as Asutralians, need to appreciate our own cultural institutions and national capital so that we sell them to the rest of the world.



Thanks


g
 
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As a former Sydneysider who spends a lot of time in Canberra, I do miss strip shopping. The concentrated mall thing isn't really that great.

But I can't say I miss much else. Driving is safe and painless. Parking is cheap and easy. Work is plentiful, interesting, and well paid. The lifestyle is excellent.

It's a very civilised place to live - don't underestimate the value of living without the smog and the hyperactivity that seems to colour everything in Sydney (everything from shop transactions to driving). Seriously, losing that everyday embedded stress can add years to your life.

Public transport is an issue, and I don't mean to minimise that. It's not an easy city to live in without a car. On the other hand, the average person is making more and can afford to run a car, and the distances are much shorter than Sydney or Melbourne without the congestion, so there is nowhere near the environmental impact.

I'll concede that it really isn't a "city that never sleeps" as Blue Card put it, but I don't see that as a problem. Real people do sleep and most people do not need to go to a cafe at 3am. (I won't say I never did that in Sydney, but it was rare and certainly not a prerequisite to a good standard of living).

I think it's a great city for real people who actually want a place to live and work, as opposed to tourists. It's all about function and need - we don't necessarily need yet another funky expensive smoggy stressful metropolis, but we do need decent places for people to live and work and a place to serve the function of running the country.
 
However it is a difficult city to get around in. The wide open and spread out places make it difficult for those without a car.
g


Surely difficulty in getting around Canberra is relative. I was there recently on a bus with a heap of school kids on a school excursion [as a dad minder] and we went everywhere with no trouble at all.

I'd bet it's difficult compared to Tamworth. Tamworth has just 6 traffic lights and 33,000 population.

I'd bet it's great compared to Melbourne or Brisbane, and a flippen dream compared to Sydney.


See ya's.
 
Canberra is brilliant. If only it was on the coast I'd happily stay here. (having said that I can still get to the beach faster on a weekend than I could when I was living in St Leonards Sydney, park for free and have a tenth of the people around)

I'm an outdoors junkie (I love my adventure racing, mountain biking, running, kayaking - hence now having my own business running those events) - I can leave my front door and be on fire trails or walking tracks in the bush in under five minutes (walk), before I quit my job I could ride to work (15km each way) on a mix of dirt (vast majority), bike paths and road (1km from front door down the road - although was a bike path available as well, but quiet suburban road so not a worry). I got to play on my way to work :D and if I was early I'd play on the singletrack some more :D

Buses here aren't too bad - for the population, distances etc it certainly beats Sydney (I've yet to have a bus not stop here because it's too full etc as per Sydney) unless you're trying to get from a small suburb to another small suburb far across town (but same goes for any city).

No smog, kangaroos do bounce down the main streets and past offices at times, great education institutions for whatever you want to do (TAFE/CIT, and Uni's). Good food. Good shopping (try Kingston or Manuka rather than Woden or Belco, yes it may be an extra 10minute drive but that's nothing). Easy parking. Tons on. Lots of museums, art galleries etc. Lots of sporting clubs for pretty much anything. A few more Melbourne style bakeries would be great (but really bad for my waist line). If you want to go elsewhere on a weekend it's easy and traffic is never that heavy (Kings Hwy on the last day of a long weekend during school holidays (I think there's two a year) being the exception).

Hardest part with Canberra is actually breaking into the social scenes, and finding where things are.
Oh and we keep the pollies seperated from the rest of us by a nice big road.
 
because a capital city should be something to be proud of, to be displayed, to be advertised internationally, to be the focal point of philosophy and arts and politics and be everything thing that is great about democracy and large society in general.

it should be somewhere that sets the standard for the rest of the country, a city that never sleeps, a city with flexible work hours and creche workplaces and roof top terraces and walls of gardens and.........i'm wasting my breath. i forget this is tall poppy country.

Sounds like you're describing New York not Washington DC. So it's not just Australia.

Personally I don't care which city is the capital. I'll visit the cities I'd like to, regardless of their status.
 
If Canberra was closer to the coast or had a better climate, I'm sure it'd have a lot more hustle and bustle.

If that were the case though, it'd probably be no different to Sydney or Melbourne and all the things that make Canberra what it is would be lost.

Personally, Canberra is much too cold for my liking, but otherwise seems like a nice place to raise a family.
 
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