- Just over 400,000 of the country’s 25 million residents live in the capital Canberra. The city actually comes down to eighth place if we rank Australia’s cities by population.
The top five cities are (2018 figures):
- Sydney – 5.2 million (more than 20 per cent of the country’s population)
- Melbourne – 4.9 million
- Brisbane – 2.5 million
- Perth – 2.1 million
- Abelaide – 1.3 million
(No other cities have over a million residents).
- While all the big million cities are on the coast, Canberra lies a little inland between the two largest, Sydney and Melbourne.
The location is not accidental. When the country was planning to get a new capital in 1908, the idea was to build a whole new city just for this purpose. Area was provided between the two main cities (though it is closest to Sydney). In 1913 it was given the name Canberra (“Canberra” comes from the Aboriginal word “Kamberra”, which means “meeting place”).
Not only is the city completely surrounded by nature (in the “bush” as it is located), but also in the center, from the beginning, space was set aside for and built large park areas with natural vegetation and trees.
Canberra is a beautiful city with large greenery. Often referred to as “Australia’s best-kept secret” (few tourists know the city and all it has to offer before traveling to the country).
- By area, Australia is the sixth largest country in the world. The land area has a surface area that is almost 20 times the size of Norway.
- Dingos (a species of wild dogs), forced in the late 1800s Australian authorities to begin construction of the so-called “Dingogs”to keep them away from the sheep flocks grazing on the southeastern part of the island (including Canberra, etc) is located.
The fence is 5,614 km long (and the longest fence in the world).
- Since 1987, Canberra has been the venue for Australia’s biggest car festival, ” Summernats”. The festival set the audience record in 2017 with 120,000 visitors (not bad for a city with 400,000 residents). Arranged every year in time around New Year.