Just read in Bill Bryson's book DOWN UNDER for, during the construction of Canberra as our nat'l capital, there were discussions re the name for this new city, ranging to some quite ridiculous suggestions as Kookaburra, Shakespeare and Victoria Defender IIRC. WI Canberra had then been called by some different name ?
Other names for Canberra
- Thread starter Melvin Loh
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Grettir Asmundarsen said:
I'd say something appropriate, but only the man himself can do proper Berrisms.
Hmm... How 'bout "Australopolis". Pretentious as hell, and it doesn't have any kind of ring to it.
Cockroach said:IIRC there are various other "translataions" relating it too wind.
Quite appropriote given that the damn pollies talk like hell but rarely ever actually do anything
Very true
And I can vouch for the wind part as I lived there for several months during the winter of 1997.
And not one decent pub in the entire dump.
Wendell said:
Yes there's a state called Victoria so whether they'd call the capital Victoriana is doubtful. But then again the national Australian capital was Melbourne (the state capital for Victoria) for several years until Canberra was built & finally opened in 1927 (if memory serves). So they could have called it Victoriana based upon honouring Melbourne being the first Australian national capital albeit the temporary one. Doing so, though, would have seen my state, New South Wales, secede from the Australian Commonwealth with Canberra, being located where it is, being placed under seige from New South Wales armed forces and eventually captured.
Wendell said:
Well it was a near miracle that we all got together in the first place without a war between the colonies. None of the colonies liked the other, all were in competition in regards to markets & so forth, some where expansionists wanting to start their own empire, whilst others were protectionists & paranoid of their neighbours.
Then, for Federation, states argued over were the capital would be. Then, when Melbourne became the temporary capital, Sydney demanded & got the official Residencies of the Prime Minister & Governor-General. Even today, even though the national capital moved to Canberra 80 years ago, Sydney still has the official Residencies of the Prime Minister & Governor-General. Then there were arguements over railway gauges, arguments over taxation, arguments over industrial relations, arguments over defence, etc, etc, etc...
One big happy family
You haven't had a civil war yet.DMA said:Well it was a near miracle that we all got together in the first place without a war between the colonies. None of the colonies liked the other, all were in competition in regards to markets & so forth, some where expansionists wanting to start their own empire, whilst others were protectionists & paranoid of their neighbours.
Then, for Federation, states argued over were the capital would be. Then, when Melbourne became the temporary capital, Sydney demanded & got the official Residencies of the Prime Minister & Governor-General. Even today, even though the national capital moved to Canberra 80 years ago, Sydney still has the official Residencies of the Prime Minister & Governor-General. Then there were arguements over railway gauges, arguments over taxation, arguments over industrial relations, arguments over defence, etc, etc, etc...
One big happy family
Wendell said:
I'd doubt that we ever will - these days. But around 1900 it could have been a different story as the premire of New South Wales, in the colony referendum leading up to nationhood, advised the New South Wales citizens to vote no because the rest of the colonies refused his demands to have Canberra established within New South Wales territory (where it is currently located).
As a result, not only did the other states (Victoria, South Australia, & Tasmania) have to change their position, as the first referendum consequently failed in NSW, but a second referendum was required in NSW which needless to say finally succeeded. So we could have had a civil war over where the national capital was to be.
Then there was Queensland who, early on, was a major supporter of Federation, but then in 1899 went very cold on the idea for several reasons - the leading one being over it's territory in New Guinea, which it shouldn't have had in the first place but ignored everyone including the UK - and then immediately had its referendum only after the second one in NSW was successful.
And finally there was Western Australia, who's premier at the time did everything he could to sabotage every move towards Federation & only permitted his colony to join, not due to any popular referendum, but because the British government threated his sacking & arrest if he continued to refuse to join.
As I said - one big happy family...