History - Australian Capital Territory - Australia
History - The Australian Capital Territory The region now occupied by the ACT was originally an area of long, thick grasses and scrub land, populated by the local aboriginal tribe who hunted there for kangaroo and other animals. Early white explorers commented on the suitability of the area for grazing, and the first homestead was established there in the later half of the nineteenth century.
The site for the federal capital was chosen by the constitutional convention held to establish Australia as a federation in the late 1890’s. The reason was simple - it was roughly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest population centerers in Australia.
The Australian Capital Territory came into being along with the Federation of Australia in 1901. The city was named Canberra after the suggestion of Lady Denman, since the word Canberra means "meeting place" in the language of the local aboriginal people.
The remainder of the ACT’s history is largely that of Canberra itself, but the territory as a whole has also seen development. Around Canberra, dendrologists establish numerous arboretums to assess what sort of trees would grow suitably in the prevailing climate.
This has paved the way for a forestry industry in the territory. A large proportion of the territory was set aside as Namadgi National Park. This park encompasses several of the old arboretums as well as the Corin Dam, Canberra’s water source. It also contains some old satellite tracking stations constructed in the early days of space exploration.
Although ruled by a federal department for much of it’s history, the ACT is now self-governing. One interesting aspect of this is that the decision to pursue self-government was taken against the popular will of the residents! This displays perfectly the Australian attitude to wards the value of elected representatives, as assessed by the people who see the most of them! the ACT legislative assembly is now composed of 18 representatives elected by the Hare-Clark system, which ensures a strong presence of minority parties and independents.
