Canberra, Australia

Cinema, theater, sport, museum, restaurant, dancing, live music or taking your chances at the casino. What will it be? As the national political seat, Canberra is not short of entertainment. Keeping up to date with events in Canberra is as easy as picking up a newspaper. The Canberra Times has a daily list of entertainment in its Alive section. Two free newspapers are available at music stores, inner city cafes and information centers: BMA Magazine lists live music concerts and Muse gives updates on literary and theatrical events in the region. Canberra Tourism provides a regularly updated list of events and entertainment locations on its comprehensive web site.

Nightlife

There are "watering holes" in just about every suburb of Canberra, with the Irish/English tavern being the current trend. Around the city area and Tuggeranong, more and more venues are opening with that distinctive old English style—such as PJ O'Reilly's. There are also many standard pubs with pool tables and live music. Add to this the very Australian "RSL" Club scene, such as the Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club and the Canberra Southern Cross Club chain, which offer gaming machines, live music, dancing and bistro meals.

The latest dance music is always the flavor in Canberra and various nightclubs cater for late night dancing on the weekends. The concentration of clubs is in the city and Manuka areas with well-established venues, such as Minque, always the favorite. New clubs are popping up all the time and many offer specialty nights to cater for most musical tastes. Canberra's only casino—Casino Canberra—has entertainment available in every arena and is guaranteed to keep you going well into the night, whether you enjoy dancing, dining, live music or simply gambling.

Live Music

Canberra's music scene caters for all possible tastes. Local and interstate bands perform at most clubs and pubs in the city, while there are several other venues that specialize in live music. Well-known Australian artists perform on a regular basis at Tilley's in Lyneham. Blues and jazz lovers are well looked after in Canberra, with such venues as PJ O'Reilly's, Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club, Canberra Southern Cross Club and the Wig and Pen offering live acts on a regular basis. Club Mombasa specializes in Afro and Reggae. Irish music has also become popular, with live performances every Sunday at the Phoenix.

Popular international acts visit the city more often these days, particularly at venues such as, the Royal Theatre and AIS arena. Tickets and information for these concerts are available through the Ticketek agency.

Theater & Cinema

Whether you prefer main stream or alternative cinema, Canberra will have something for you. With large cinema complexes in each town center—Hoyts in Belconnen and Woden, and Greater Union Civic in the city. Ronin Independent Center Cinema and Electric Shadows—have been the alternative and Australian film hotspots in Canberra for many years. International films and cult favorites get a great deal of screen time at these venues and at Screensound Australia.

Events

Canberra hosts a full annual calendar of festivals, many of them internationally famous and visited by tourists from across the globe. The best known and loved of these festivals is Floriade, held in September and October each year when the shores of Lake Burley Griffin at Commonwealth Park are transformed into a botanical masterpiece. In April the National Folk Festival, a celebration of music, takes place at Exhibition Park. Sporting fans are also well catered for in Canberra with several rugby teams, including the Canberra Raiders rugby league.

The word Canberra comes from the name given to an early European settler's property, "Canberry." That name, in turn derives from the Aboriginal word, "Kamberra," meaning, "meeting place"—apt for a city that became the nation's capital as a solution to the dispute between rivals Melbourne and Sydney.

For more than 21,000 years, this region was home to the Ngunnawal Aboriginal people. As part of their nomadic migrations, the Ngunnawal regularly visited the area for corroborees and feasts. Archaeological evidence of Aboriginal occupation can be found at Birrigai Rock shelter in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, at the Tuggeranong Creek and Axe Grinding Grooves, and rock paintings in Namadgi National Park and at other sites throughout what is now known as the Australian Capital Territory. European settlement, beginning in the 1820s, disrupted the thriving Aboriginal life-style. Although much of their culture was lost, many indigenous people continued to live in the area, taking work on sheep stations.

Following the federation of Australia in 1901, several years were spent searching for a suitable site for the country's capital. Finally, in 1908, Federal Parliament declared that the location of the future city would be in the Yass/Canberra district. The New South Wales Government Surveyor at the time, Charles Scrivener, selected the old "Canberry" property due to its commanding position within an amphitheater of hills (the city center of modern Canberra now lies over the middle of that former property). Scrivener's vision was for the flood plain of the Molonglo River to form an ornamental lake in the center of the city. His proposal was ratified in 1909 and on 1 January 1911, the Australian Capital Territory came into existence. At this stage there were only 1,714 people living in the Territory, outnumbered slightly by horses and greatly by the 224,764 sheep; not to mention the kangaroos!

The government launched an international competition to design the city of Canberra on  May 24, 1911 and, from some 137 entries, Walter Burley Griffin's design won first prize. On March 12, 1913, the wife of Australia's Governor General, Lady Denman, officially named Canberra as the capital of Australia and laid three foundation stones in place at the base of the commencement column. These stones can still be seen buried in the lawn of Parliament House.

Later in 1913, Griffin came out to Australia to implement his design. His plan placed Capital Hill at the center of Canberra with wide, tree-lined avenues radiating from it—each named after an Australian State capital and each pointing in the direction of that city. Griffin's plan related the structure and geometry of the city to the natural terrain of the site, and used three axes to form a great triangle. The land axis linked Mount Ainslie to Capital Hill. The water axis ran from Black Mountain through to what is now Lake Burley Griffin (the lake formed by damming the Molonglo River). The third axis—the Municipal axis (now Constitution Avenue)—ran from City Hill to Russell Hill.
However, delays in constructing the capital ensued due to lack of funds and the outbreak of the First World War. It was not until 1926 that the Federal Parliament met in Canberra, and then in a "provisional" parliament building, (Old Parliament House), built on a flatter area than the one appearing on Griffin's plan. This building officially opened on May 9, 1927. At this stage, the infant capital consisted of two government office buildings, a Prime Minister's residence, the Lodge, several hotels and guest houses, the Royal Military College, a hospital, a dam, a powerhouse, a brickworks, and a construction camp for workers. A railway connection linked Canberra to Queanbeyan and thence to Sydney. By this time a nucleus of inner suburbs had formed—Kingston, Yarralumla, Ainslie, Reid and Forrest—and some public servants had moved to Canberra from Melbourne.

When the Great Depression hit, construction of the nation's capital halted again. With a population of 7000 people, Canberra went into hibernation. Furthermore, work had scarcely begun on the Australian War Memorial and the National Library when the Second World War halted progress. It was not until after the war that development of the city really began.

In 1954, a housing shortage hit Canberra (now with a population of 39,000), so the government established a Senate Select Committee to inquire into the development of the city. This committee recommended a single well-funded organization to implement construction and development. The Griffin Plan was reviewed and Lake Burley Griffin inaugurated in 1964. Further developments included the construction of bridges and avenues radiating from Capital Hill, which realized the concept of the "Parliamentary Triangle." The establishment of new town centers to the north and southwest of Griffin's Canberra commenced, with residents moving into the first new town, Woden, in 1964. Belconnen, to the north, followed in 1967 and Tuggeranong, to the south, in 1973.

More public servants moved from Sydney and Melbourne. A large defense office complex was constructed at Russell Hill, on one of the corners of the Parliamentary Triangle. Completion of the Royal Australian Mint followed and other government buildings were built in town centers to generate retail development and services. The establishment of new embassies reflected Australia's growth and its international links. The National Library, the High Court of Australia, the Australian National Gallery and the National Science and Technology Centre grew up within the Parliamentary Triangle. And finally, following another international competition and ten years of construction, a new Parliament House opened on May 9, 1988—to mark the bicentenary of European settlement.

As the seat of federal government and home to diplomatic embassies of over 60 countries, Canberra is a diverse and cultured city with all the amenities of a modern city but none of the disadvantages. It has taken a long time but the vision of Walter Burley Griffin has now been realized.