Australian Capital Territory is a territory in the south east of Australia, enclaved within
New South Wales. It is the smaller of the two self-governing internal territories in
Australia. The only city and by far the most populous community is Canberra, the capital
city of Australia. The need for a national territory was flagged
by colonial delegates during the Federation conventions of the late 19th century. Section
125 of the Australian Constitution provided that, following Federation in 1901, land would
be ceded freely to the new Federal Government. The territory was transferred to the Commonwealth
by the state of New South Wales in 1911, two years prior to the naming of Canberra as the
national capital in 1913. The floral emblem of the ACT is the Royal Bluebell and the bird
emblem is the Gang-gang Cockatoo.
Geography
The ACT is bounded by the Goulburn-Cooma railway line in the east, the watershed of Naas Creek
in the south, the watershed of the Cotter River in the west, and the watershed of the
Molonglo River in the north-east. The ACT also has a small strip of territory around
the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula, which is the northern headland of Jervis Bay.
Apart from the city of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory also contains agricultural
land and a large area of national park, much of it mountainous and forested. Small townships
and communities located within the ACT include Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall.
Tidbinbilla is a locality to the south-west of Canberra that features the Tidbinbilla
Nature Reserve and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, operated by the United
States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of its Deep Space Network.
There are a large range of mountains, rivers and creeks in the Namadgi National Park. These
include the Naas and Murrumbidgee Rivers.
Climate Because of its elevation 650 metres and distance
from the coast, the Australian Capital Territory experiences four distinct seasons, unlike
many other Australian cities whose climates are moderated by the sea. Canberra is noted
for its warm to hot, dry summers, and cold winters with occasional fog and frequent frosts.
Many of the higher mountains in the territory's south-west are snow-covered for at least part
of the winter. Thunderstorms can occur between October and March, and annual rainfall is
623 mm, with rainfall highest in spring and summer and lowest in winter.
The highest maximum temperature recorded in the ACT was 42.8 °C at Acton on 11 January
1939. The lowest minimum temperature was −14.6 °C at Gudgenby on 11 July 1971.
Geology
Notable geological formations in the Australian Capital Territory include the Canberra Formation,
the Pittman Formation, Black Mountain Sandstone and State Circle Shale.
In the 1840s fossils of brachiopods and trilobites from the Silurian period were discovered at
Woolshed Creek near Duntroon. At the time, these were the oldest fossils discovered in
Australia, though this record has now been far surpassed. Other specific geological places
of interest include the State Circle cutting and the Deakin anticline.
The oldest rocks in the ACT date from the Ordovician around 480 million years ago. During
this period the region along with most of Eastern Australia was part of the ocean floor;
formations from this period include the Black Mountain Sandstone formation and the Pittman
Formation consisting largely of quartz-rich sandstone, siltstone and shale. These formations
became exposed when the ocean floor was raised by a major volcanic activity in the Devonian
forming much of the east coast of Australia. Governance
The ACT has internal self-government, but Australia's Constitution does not afford the
territory government the full legislative independence provided to Australian states.
Laws are made in a 17-member Legislative Assembly that combines both state and local government
functions. Members of the Legislative Assembly are elected
via the Hare Clarke system. The ACT Chief Minister is elected by members of the ACT
Assembly. The ACT Government Chief Minister is a member of the Council of Australian Governments.
Unlike other self-governing Australian territories, the ACT does not have an Administrator. The
Crown is represented by the Australian Governor-General in the government of the ACT. Until 4 December
2011, the decisions of the assembly could be overruled by the Governor-General under
section 35 of the Australian Capital Territory Act 1988, although the federal parliament
voted in 2011 to abolish this veto power, instead requiring a majority of both houses
of the federal parliament to override an enactment of the ACT. The Chief Minister performs many
of the roles that a state governor normally holds in the context of a state; however,
the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly gazettes the laws and summons meetings of the Assembly.
In Australia's Federal Parliament, the ACT is represented by four federal members: two
members of the House of Representatives; the Division of Fraser and the Division of Canberra
and is one of only two territories to be represented in the Senate, with two Senators. The Member
for Fraser and the ACT Senators also represent the constituents of the Jervis Bay Territory.
In 1915 the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915 created the Jervis Bay Territory
as an annexe to the Australian Capital Territory. In 1988, when the ACT gained self-government,
Jervis Bay became a separate territory administered by the Australian Government Minister responsible
for Territories, presently the Minister for Home Affairs.
The ACT retains a small area of territory on the coast on the Beecroft Peninsula, consisting
of a strip of coastline around the northern headland of Jervis Bay. The ACT's land on
the Beecroft Peninsula is an "exclave", that is, an area of territory not physically connected
to the main part of the ACT. Interestingly, this ACT exclave surrounds a small exclave
of NSW territory, namely the Point Perpendicular lighthouse which is at the southern tip of
the Beecroft Peninsula. The lighthouse and its grounds are New South Wales territory,
but cut off from the rest of the state by the strip of ACT land. This is a geographic
curiosity: an exclave of NSW land enclosed by an exclave of ACT land.
Administration
ACT Ministers implement their executive powers through the following government directorates:
Health Directorate Chief Minister's Directorate
Community Services Directorate Economic Development Directorate
Education and Training Directorate Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate
Justice and Community Safety Directorate Territory and Municipal Services Directorate
Treasury Directorate Demographics
In the 2011 census the population of the ACT was 357,222 of whom most lived in Canberra.
The ACT median weekly income for people aged over 15 was in the range $600–$699 while
that for the population living outside Canberra was at the national average of $400–$499.
The average level of degree qualification in the ACT is higher than the national average.
Within the ACT 4.5% of the population have a postgraduate degree compared to 1.8% across
the whole of Australia. Urban structure
Canberra is a planned city that was originally designed by Walter Burley Griffin, a major
20th century American architect. Major roads follow a wheel-and-spoke pattern rather than
a grid. The city centre is laid out on two perpendicular axes: a water axis stretching
along Lake Burley Griffin, and a ceremonial land axis stretching from Parliament House
on Capital Hill north-eastward along ANZAC Parade to the Australian War Memorial at the
foot of Mount Ainslie. The area known as the Parliamentary Triangle
is formed by three of Burley Griffin's axes, stretching from Capital Hill along Commonwealth
Avenue to the Civic Centre around City Hill, along Constitution Avenue to the Defence precinct
on Russell Hill, and along Kings Avenue back to Capital Hill.
The larger scheme of Canberra's layout is based on the three peaks surrounding the city,
Mount Ainslie, Black Mountain, and Red Hill. The main symmetrical axis of the city is along
ANZAC Parade and roughly on the line between Mount Ainslie and Bimberi Peak. Bimberi Peak
being the highest mountain in the ACT approximately 52 km south west of Canberra . The precise
alignment of ANZAC parade is between Mount Ainslie and Capital Hill.
The Griffins assigned spiritual values to Mount Ainslie, Black Mountain, and Red Hill
and originally planned to cover each of these in flowers. That way each hill would be covered
with a single, primary color which represented its spiritual value. This part of their plan
never came to fruition. In fact, WWI interrupted the construction and some conflicts after
the war made it a difficult process for the Griffins. Nevertheless, Canberra stands as
an exemplary city design and is located halfway between the ski slopes and the beach. It enjoys
a natural cooling from geophysical factors. The urban areas of Canberra are organised
into a hierarchy of districts, town centres, group centres, local suburbs as well as other
industrial areas and villages. There are seven districts, each of which is divided into smaller
suburbs, and most of which have a town centre which is the focus of commercial and social
activities. The districts were settled in the following chronological order:
North Canberra, mostly settled in the 1920s and '30s, with expansion up to the 1960s,
now 14 suburbs South Canberra, settled from the 1920s to
'60s, 13 suburbs Woden Valley, first settled in 1963, 12 suburbs
Belconnen, first settled in 1967, 25 suburbs Weston Creek, settled in 1969, 8 suburbs
Tuggeranong, settled in 1974, 19 suburbs Gungahlin, settled in the early 1990s, 18
suburbs although only 12 are developed or under development
Molonglo Valley, first suburbs currently under construction
The North and South Canberra districts are substantially based on Walter Burley Griffin's
designs. In 1967 the then National Capital Development Commission adopted the "Y Plan"
which laid out future urban development in Canberra around a series of central shopping
and commercial area known as the 'town centres' linked by freeways, the layout of which roughly
resembled the shape of the letter Y, with Tuggeranong at the base of the Y and Belconnen
and Gungahlin located at the ends of the arms of the Y.
Development in Canberra has been closely regulated by government, both through the town planning
process, but also through the use of crown lease terms that have tightly limited the
use of parcels of land. All land in the ACT is held on 99 year leases from the national
government, although most leases are now administered by the Territory government.
Most suburbs have their own local shops, and are located close to a larger shopping centre
serving a group of suburbs. Community facilities and schools are often also located near local
shops or group shopping centres. Many of Canberra's suburbs are named after former Prime Ministers,
famous Australians, early settlers, or use Aboriginal words for their title.
Street names typically follow a particular theme; for example, the streets of Duffy are
named after Australian dams and reservoirs, the streets of Dunlop are named after Australian
inventions, inventors and artists and the streets of Page are named after biologists
and naturalists. Most diplomatic missions are located in the suburbs of Yarralumla,
Deakin and O'Malley. There are three light industrial areas: the suburbs of Fyshwick,
Mitchell and Hume. Education
Almost all educational institutions in the Australian Capital Territory are located within
Canberra. The ACT public education system schooling is normally split up into Pre-School,
Primary School, High School and College followed by studies at university or CIT. Many private
high schools include years 11 and 12 and are referred to as colleges. Children are required
to attend school until they turn 17 under the ACT Government's "Learn or Earn" policy.
In February 2004 there were 140 public and non-governmental schools in Canberra; 96 were
operated by the Government and 44 are non-Government. In 2005 there were 60,275 students in the
ACT school system. 59.3% of the students were enrolled in government schools with the remaining
40.7% in non-government schools. There were 30,995 students in primary school, 19,211
in high school, 9,429 in college and a further 340 in special schools.
As of May 2004, 30% of people in the ACT aged 15–64 had a level of educational attainment
equal to at least a bachelor's degree, significantly higher than the national average of 19%. The
two main tertiary institutions are the Australian National University in Acton and the University
of Canberra in Bruce. There are also two religious university campuses in Canberra: Signadou
is a campus of the Australian Catholic University and St Mark's Theological College is a campus
of Charles Sturt University. Tertiary level vocational education is also available through
the multi-campus Canberra Institute of Technology. The Australian Defence Force Academy and the
Royal Military College, Duntroon are in the suburb of Campbell in Canberra's inner northeast.
ADFA teaches military undergraduates and postgraduates and is officially a campus of the University
of New South Wales while Duntroon provides Australian Army Officer training.
The Academy of Interactive Entertainment offers courses in computer game development and 3D
animation.
See also
Australia Outline of Australia
Index of Australia-related articles Book:Australia
History of the Australian Capital Territory Revenue stamps of the Australian Capital Territory
Notes
References
External links Statistical Subdivisions of the Australian
Capital Territory