Evening star., 1941-12-07
The Worlds Youngest
Capital
By Frederic J. HuSkin.


construction Of $3.50 900 Georgian build
ing in Canberra, capital Of Australia, to
be the first Legation of the United States
to be erected on that continent, is re-
minder that Australia has the youngest
capital in the world. Moreover, Canberra
was modelled after Washington and with
| it has many things in common.
| Twenty-eight years ago Australa's
| capital was only a vast tract Of open
| sheep country at the foothills OF the
| Australian Alps, and existed only on
| bueprints and drawings in the Chicago
office of Walter Burley Griffin, town
planner and disciple of Frank Lloyd
| Wright. one of Americas foremost
architects
Today. sheep still Craze on broad pas
lures within sight of the low white build
ing which is the seat Of the Australian
national legislature. The wide avenues
and boulevards Of Grifin's plan curve
through lines of exotic trees, free OF
houses between the huge administrative
buildings and the constellation OF
planned suburbs. Only about u 900 peo
pie live in the capital. They are all
government officials, their families, mem
bers of Parliament and neWspapermen,
| the nucleus of great city that mas YET
to grow Meanwhile, decisions affecting
| AustraIia's wartime industrial develop
ment and armed dispositions in three
continents are made in the idylhc at
mosphere of a rural Utopia.
ohol 20 only 100
cent political city in the world. Except
for essential public utilities, 1t has no
industries. unless government ana ad-
ministration can be called an industry.
All its inhabitants from ianitors to min
listers talk politics, making 1t the world
easiest working territory for political cor
RESPONDENTS. If nobody else knows, some
waitress can probably tell what happened
at the last cabinet meeting. 1t Is
wrote a veteran Canberra correspondent
"a capital cut away to show the moving
parts On a clear day lobbyist can be
sighted miles distant
The founders of Canberra had def
mite purpose in mind in locating the
capital in the wide open spaces and lar
awav from other places. The six states
/ OF AuSIrdlld lbUtI dltO III I0OO' nv NA-''S
time the two large cities were Sydney.
Australia's oldest city. capital OF the
senior state Of New South Wales, az"
Melbourne. younger, richer capital G
Victoria. Each feared that the influence
of the other would dominate the ne"
federal government. and one clause ct
the commonwealth constitution was
that the seat Of government should not
be within 100 miles Of either city.
From many angles, Canberra is an
: American invention. The whole Aus
tralian constitution and its federal sys-
tenn were modelled on the Constitution OF
the United States, and Washington, D. C.,
was the model for the federal capital.
It was an American. King OMalley. an
| Immigrant from California and minis
ter of home affairs in the rrst Aus
tralian Labor government, who oecloeo
on Canberra from so sites suggested as
the future capital. 1t was the sort OF
dream an American could understand
to plant surveying pegs on great empty
amphitheater of grass and forest, ana
decide it would be the capital. Like
Andrew jackson. when there was dis
mite as to where the United States
Treasury Building should be located
planting his cane into the ground ne
exclaimed Right here is where want
the cornerstone"
Canberra is 23O miles from Sydney and
43O miles from Melbourne, 1900 feet
above sea level on rolling country below
the snow-clad Australian Alps, threaded
bv the winding Molonglo River that
ioins the Murrumbidgee to flow 2,ooo
miles to the Indian Ocean.
Canberra is an aboriginal name. An
thropologists argued about what 1t meant,
= and to this day no one knows the mean
ing of the word. But the name STUCK
D although other names we're suggested
l Time was when Canberra was known 10
{ the press and public as the city OF the
hollow log" That was before the 5000
600 imported and native trees had been
l grown on its geometric avenues, Later,
/ and before buildings were erected, II
was called the city of foundation
E stones" Like Washington in its early
wears, Canberra was often referred TO
bv still other uncomplimentary names.
Today Canberra is one of the most
. beautiful cities in the world, and Aus
tralians. somewhat to their surprise, find
one of their once most criticized national
projects leading tourist attraction
y where the curious go to see how politics
:. work in the bush.
= There are other American angles to
Canberra besides its conception, its
! founder and its architect. AS in the
District of Columbia, the residents OF
. Australian Capital Territory do not vote.
II From time to time the citizens as in
i washington, complained loudly OF this,
but not so loudly as they complained OF
another constitutional deprivation, the
;. right to drink.
- Probably few Americans know that the
;, United States style Of prohibition was
- in force in another part OF the world,
. not merely through imitation, but actu-
y ally imposed by an American. King
Il OMalley, who looked like a bearded
= forty-niner. was really a fanatical dry,
y and in 1918, quietly made an ordinance
II forbidding sale of beer or liquor in Fed
y eral Capital Territory. This did not
matter in 1918 for nobody lived there.
But when the capital was officially occu-
~ pied in 1927 and officials. clerks and 9TH
ers moved into the untenanted city, 1t
g began to matter very much A sleepy
- village called Queenbeyan. a few miles
~ from Canberra and outside the Federal