Canberra (population 470,000) is Australia's capital city — a purpose-built federal capital created from scratch in 1908 after the long rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne over which city should be the nation's capital resulted in a constitutional compromise requiring an entirely new capital to be built in the Australian Capital Territory between the two rival cities. Designed by the American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin (who won the international design competition in 1913), Canberra is the largest inland city in Australia and one of the few national capitals in the world to have been conceived and built from the ground up in the 20th century. The city is defined by its extraordinary concentration of national institutions — the Australian War Memorial (the most visited cultural attraction in Australia), Parliament House (1988, the new parliament building with its distinctive grass-covered roof), the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia and the National Library — all arrayed around the artificial Lake Burley Griffin at the heart of the planned city.
Parliament House (the most important public building in Australia — opened May 9 1988 by Queen Elizabeth II for the Australian bicentennial): designed by Romaldo Giurgola of Mitchell/Giurgola Architects (New York) — the American architect who won the 1979 international design competition for the new Parliament House. The most distinctive feature of any parliament building in the world: the building is buried into the top of Capital Hill, with the grass-covered roof (a 32-hectare manicured lawn covering the entire building) so that Capital Hill retains its natural hill profile from a distance, with only the stainless steel flagpole (81m tall — the tallest flagpole in Australia, flying a 12.8×6.4m Australian flag) rising from the summit. The Great Hall: the 20×50m ceremonial space with the Arthur Boyd tapestry (the most important Australian tapestry: 20×9m depicting Australian native flora and fauna in the style of Arthur Boyd's most important landscape paintings). The Marble Foyer: the 48 columns of grey-green marble (from the Barossa Valley quarry) supporting the coffered ceiling inlaid with marquetry panels depicting Australian native plants.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOld Parliament House (the Museum of Australian Democracy — the original 1927 parliament building that served as Australia's parliament for 61 years from 1927 to 1988): designed by John Smith Murdoch (the Commonwealth Director of Works) in the Inter-war Stripped Classical style (the most common government building style in Australia in the 1920s: the restrained neoclassical forms stripped of the elaborate Victorian ornamentation — the same style used for the Australian War Memorial and the National Library). The building was always intended to be "provisional" (the 1901 Constitution required a permanent capital and parliament building, but the provisional building opened in 1927 and remained in use until 1988 — the most delayed "provisional" building in Australian political history). The Senate chamber (preserved exactly as it was on the last day of parliament in 1988) and the House of Representatives chamber (the most important single rooms in the history of Australian democracy — the chambers where every major Australian political decision from 1927 to 1988 was made including the 1972 election of the Whitlam Labor government (the most significant political event in postwar Australian history)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAustralian War Memorial (the most visited cultural attraction in Australia — approximately 1 million visitors per year): designed by Emil Sodersten and John Crust (winners of the 1927 international design competition), the building combines the Byzantine-domed memorial hall with the most extensive military history museum in the southern hemisphere (30,000m² of galleries). The Hall of Memory (the most sacred space in Australia): the Byzantine mosaic dome (the largest mosaic dome in the world outside St. Peter's Basilica in Rome) decorated with the most important Australian figurative mosaics of the 20th century (the figures of the Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Woman (the four symbolic figures of Australian wartime service)). The Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier (interred November 11 1993 — the first unknown soldier to be repatriated from the Western Front in France to Australia): the most important single object in the War Memorial. The Roll of Honour: the bronze panels listing the names of 102,000 Australians who have died in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations since 1885. The galleries: the Anzac Hall (the most technically spectacular exhibit in the War Memorial: the Lancaster bomber "G for George" suspended above the Japanese Ohka suicide bomb (the most confronting juxtaposition of opposing WWII technologies in any museum).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideLake Burley Griffin sunset walk (the 35km artificial lake created in 1963 by damming the Molonglo River — named after the American architect Walter Burley Griffin after his death in India in 1937): the Captain Cook Memorial Jet (the most distinctive landmark on the lake: the 147m water jet on the lake surface at Regatta Point, activated in 1970 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook's mapping of the Australian east coast — the most powerful water jet in the southern hemisphere). The Kingston Foreshore (the most important restaurant and bar strip in Canberra — the 500m lakeside dining precinct on the south shore of Lake Burley Griffin): the conversion of the former Kingston Power Station industrial buildings into the most vibrant dining precinct in the ACT: the Brodburger (the most famous burger restaurant in Canberra — the Brodburger opened in 2010 in a shipping container on the Kingston Foreshore and has been named the best burger in Australia multiple times), the Pod Food market (the most important artisan food market in Canberra) and the most important craft beer bars in the ACT (the BentSpoke Brewing Company — the most important Canberra craft brewery).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNational Gallery of Australia (the most important art museum in Australia — the federal national collection with 166,000 works in 11 galleries): the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gallery (the most important Indigenous art collection in the world: 7,500 works spanning 60,000 years of continuous Aboriginal artistic tradition — the oldest continuous artistic tradition in human history. The Western Desert painting movement (the "Papunya Tula" — the most important development in 20th-century Australian art: the Western Desert Aboriginal artists of Papunya (Northern Territory) began painting their traditional Dreaming narratives on canvas and board in 1971, transforming the most ancient oral and ritual tradition into the most internationally celebrated contemporary art movement in Australia)). Jackson Pollock "Blue Poles" (1952 — the most controversial art purchase in Australian history: the Whitlam Labor government purchased the painting in 1973 for AUD $1.3 million (USD $1.3 million at the time): the most expensive painting ever purchased by the Australian government, widely criticized in Parliament as a waste of public money (the most heated art debate in Australian political history): the painting is now valued at over AUD $350 million — the most spectacularly vindicated art purchase in Australian history)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNational Museum of Australia (the most important history museum in Australia — opened March 11 2001 at Acton Peninsula on Lake Burley Griffin): the building (designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM Architecture): the most controversial museum building in Australia — the deconstructivist design incorporates the outline of Australia's coastline as a loop in the building's plan (visible from the air), a "knot garden" and the most colourfully decorated exterior of any major Australian cultural building: the building was named the "most bizarre new building in Australia" by some critics and the "most interesting new Australian public building" by others). The Eternity gallery (the most important permanent exhibition in the NMA: the 12 "tangled destinies" that define the story of Australia from the first human arrival 65,000 years ago to the present — the Indigenous history, the British colonisation, the gold rushes, the federation, the two world wars, the immigration waves and the environmental challenges of the most extreme continent on Earth). The Bunjilaka collection (the most important collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander objects in a history museum context).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCanberra District wine region (one of the most distinctive and most under-appreciated wine regions in Australia): the Canberra District (centred on the villages of Murrumbateman (40km northwest of Canberra) and Hall (20km north)): the most important wine region within easy reach of any Australian capital city (the wineries of the Canberra District are the most accessible from a national capital of any Australian wine region). The elevation and climate (the Canberra District is the most southerly and the most inland wine region in New South Wales: the altitude (600–900m) and the continental climate (the most extreme temperature variation of any wine region in southeastern Australia — summer days reaching 35°C and winter nights falling to -10°C) produce the most distinctive wine style in Australia). Clonakilla (the most acclaimed winery in the Canberra region: founded 1971 by Dr. John Kirk — the Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier (co-fermented Syrah and Viognier in the Côte-Rôtie style) is the most celebrated wine in the ACT and consistently rated among the top 5–10 wines in Australia).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBentSpoke Brewing Company (the most important craft brewery in Canberra — founded 2014 in Braddon (the most vibrant inner-city suburb in Canberra)): the "Crankshaft" IPA (the most popular and the most awarded craft beer in Canberra: the Crankshaft American-style IPA — the most technically accomplished IPA produced in the ACT: the dry-hopping with the most aromatic American hop varieties (Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe) gives the Crankshaft its most distinctive tropical fruit + pine resin character). The "Barley Griffin" seasonal ales (named after Lake Burley Griffin — the most important Canberra-themed beer name in the craft beer scene). The Braddon dining precinct (the most important inner-city food precinct in Canberra: the 800m stretch of Lonsdale Street between Mort Street and Cooyong Street that has the most concentrated collection of independent cafes, restaurants and bars in the ACT — the most important gentrification success story in Canberra urban history).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideQuestacon (the National Science and Technology Centre — the most important interactive science museum in Australia, opened 1988 at the Canberra bicentennial): the 200 hands-on exhibits in 8 thematic galleries. The most popular exhibit: the "free-fall" experience (the 6m vertical free-fall slide that creates a 1-second weightlessness experience: the most visceral physics demonstration in any Australian science museum — the physical sensation of 0.7g for 1 second is the most memorable single exhibit in Questacon). The earthquake simulator (the most educational exhibit about natural disasters in Australia: the 30-second simulation of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake (the most destructive earthquake intensity commonly experienced in Japan and Chile) gives visitors the most direct physical understanding of seismic force). The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (related exhibit: the NASA antenna at Tidbinbilla (40km from Canberra) that was critical to the Apollo moon landings is the most important space communication facility in the southern hemisphere).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNational Library of Australia (the most important library in Australia — opened 1968, holding over 10 million items): the most important historical documents in Australia are housed here: Captain James Cook's journal of the Endeavour voyage (1768–1771 — the journal of the first European mapping of Australia's east coast: the most important document in Australian colonial history), the journals of the Burke and Wills expedition (1860–1861: the most famous and most fatal Australian inland exploration — the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, with the tragic death of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills on the return journey from the Gulf of Carpentaria: the most discussed failure in Australian exploration history). Trove (the most important digital archive in the world: the National Library's online database of 250 million pages of historical Australian newspapers (from 1803 to 1954), photographs, maps, manuscripts and diaries — the most extensively digitised national newspaper archive per capita of any country in the world).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNamadgi National Park (the most important wilderness area accessible from any Australian capital city — 106,000 hectares covering 46% of the total Australian Capital Territory): the most extraordinary urban planning fact in Australia: the national capital territory designated 46% of its total land area as protected wilderness (the most generous wilderness reservation by any national capital territory in the world). The Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (within Namadgi National Park, 40km southwest of Canberra): the most important wildlife sanctuary in the Canberra region — the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus: the most extraordinary mammal in the world: the only venomous, egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal in existence — the animal that so confounded European naturalists when the first specimens arrived in London in 1799 that scientists initially suspected it was a hoax), the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus: the most internationally recognized Australian marsupial), the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus: the most abundant large marsupial in the Canberra region) and the echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus: one of only five monotreme species in the world).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFarewell Canberra sunset from Mount Ainslie (843m — the hill directly behind the Australian War Memorial and at the northern end of the Land Axis of Walter Burley Griffin's 1913 Canberra design): the most important and the most perfectly planned urban panorama in Australia — from the summit of Mount Ainslie the view looks directly down Griffin's Land Axis (the central axis of the Canberra plan aligned with the Bimberi Peak to the southwest): the Australian War Memorial (immediately below), then the ANZAC Parade (the ceremonial avenue lined with the most important war memorials in Australia: the memorials to the Greek Campaign, the Kokoda Track, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War), then Lake Burley Griffin, then Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, then the land rising to Capital Hill with Parliament House at the summit — the most planned and the most perfectly executed urban vista in Australia. Walk (20 minutes from the Australian War Memorial car park) or drive to the summit car park.
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