Watching the endless stream of cars crossing the Nelligen bridge every weekend as much of Canberra's population heads to the coast like lemmings to the sea, I'm left wondering why Canberra wasn't built on the coast.
Canberra's location was determined, in part, by section 125 of the Con-stitution, which states "The seat of Government of the Commonwealth ... shall be in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney". This came about because [the then Premier of NSW] George Reid pulled all the premiers of the colony together and said, "Look lads, if you want NSW in this federation, we get the capital", to which several Victorian and South Australian politi-cians replied, "Righto then, we'll agree with that ... but only if the capital is at least 100 miles from Sydney. It can't be Sydney."
The new capital was also meant to be in a cold climate because King O'Malley - now chiefly remembered for his role in the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank, the selection of Canberra as the national capital, and taking the 'U' out of the name of the Australian Labour Party - famously said that "The history of the world shows that cold climates produce the greatest geniuses."
So far, history has not repeated itself in Canberra, but I feel a bit better already for having grown up in the cold climate of Germany - not that I'd want to suggest anything, really! ☺
