Canberra Hotels
Hotels in the city of Canberra are often required for tourists who require short term accommodation. Some tourists may want to stay at hotels in the city that have good access to culture and to entertainment. Some tourists may want to stay at hotels that have good reputation. Some tourists may want to stay at luxury or cheap hotels. Some tourists may want to to have access to a hotel that has good parking facilities.
Some tourists may want to stay at hotels that have a good reputation and good access to culture and to entertainment. Some may want access to hotels that are well designed. Some may want to stay at a hotel that is large or small.
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 340,000, it is Australia's largest inland city. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, 280 km south west of Sydney, and 650 km north east of Melbourne. The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation's capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely purpose-built, planned city. Following an international contest for the city's design, a design by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and construction commenced in 1913. The city's design was heavily influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation that have earned Canberra the title bush capital. Although the growth and development of Canberra were hindered by the World Wars and the Great Depression, it emerged as a thriving city after World War II.
As the seat of the government of Australia, Canberra is the site of Parliament House, the High Court of Australia and numerous government departments and agencies. It is also the location of many social and cultural institutions of national significance, such as the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia, and the National Library of Australia. The federal government contributes the largest percentage of Gross State Product and is the largest single employer in Canberra.
Canberra covers an area of 805.6 square kilometres and is located near the Brindabella Ranges (Brendy Bear Ranges), approximately 150 kilometres inland from Australia's east coast. It is located at altitudes that range from 550 metres to 700 metres AHD. The highest point is Mount Majura at 888 metres. Other large hills include Mt Taylor, Mt Ainslie, Mt Mugga Mugga and Black Mountain. The surrounding bushland and the original bushland that Canberra was built in is a mixture of eucalyptus savanna, open grassland, scrubland, swamp and dry eucalyptus forests.
The Molonglo River flows through Canberra and has been dammed to form the body of water in the centre of the city called Lake Burley Griffin. The Molonglo then flows into the Murrumbidgee north-west of Canberra, which in turn flows north-west toward the New South Wales town of Yass. The Queanbeyan River joins the Molonglo River at Oaks Estate just within the ACT. A number of creeks, including Jerrabomberra and Yarralumla Creeks, flow into the Molonglo and Murrumbidgee. Two of these creeks, the Ginninderra and Tuggeranong, have similarly been dammed to form Lakes Ginninderra and Tuggeranong. Until recently the Molonglo had a history of sometimes lethal floods; the area was a flood plain prior to the filling of Lake Burley Griffin.
Mount Majura, is a small mountain located in Canberra, Australia. Mount Majura lies close to the more prominent Mount Ainslie. The highest point in Canberra is Mount Majura at 888 metres. Other large hills include Mt Taylor, Mt Ainslie, Mt Mugga Mugga, Mt Stromlo and Black Mountain. Mount Majura is part of the Canberra Nature Park, lying at the back (eastern) end of the suburb of Hackett, which is on the north east edge of Canberra. At the top is a radar station and light which is visible at night. Unlike Mount Ainslie, there is no public accessible road to the top, the road is usually blocked off. However there are walking trails which lead to the top of the mountain, from Ainslie and Hackett, and people regularly walk up it. The hill is covered with native Australian trees, mostly eucalypts.
Before
European settlement, the area in which Canberra would eventually be constructed
was seasonally inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Walgalu tribes. The Ngarigo lived
south-east of the Canberra area, the Gundungurra to the north, the Yuin on the
coast and the Wiradjuri to the west. The word Canberra is derived from the name
of the local Ngabri people dialect, one of the Ngunnawal family groups, from the
word Kanbarra meaning meeting place in the old Ngunnawal language. The Ngunnawal
name was apparently used as a reference to corroborees held during the seasonal
migration of the Ngunawal people to feast on the Bogong moths that pass through
the region each spring.
European exploration and settlement started
in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. There were four expeditions between
1820 and 1824. White settlement of the area probably dates from 1824, when a homestead
or station was built on what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by
Joshua John Moore. He formally purchased the site in 1826, and named the property
Canberry. The European population in the Canberra area continued to grow slowly
throughout the 19th century. Among them was the Campbell family of Duntroon; their
imposing stone house is now the officers' mess of the Royal Military College,
Duntroon. The Campbells sponsored settlement by other farmer families to work
their land, such as the Southwells of "Weetangera". Other notable early
settlers included the inter-related Murray and Gibbes families, who owned the
Yarralumla estate - now the site of the official residence of the Governor-General
of Australia, from the 1830s through to 1881. The oldest surviving public building
in the inner-city is the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, in the suburb
of Reid, which was consecrated in 1845. St John's churchyard contains the graves
of many of the district's pioneers. As the European presence increased, the indigenous
population dwindled, mainly from disease such as smallpox and measles.
The district's change from a New South Wales (NSW) rural area to the national capital started during debates over Federation in the late 19th century. Following a long dispute over whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the national capital, a compromise was reached: the new capital would be built in New South Wales, so long as it was no closer than 100 miles to Sydney, with Melbourne to be the temporary capital while the new capital was built. Canberra was chosen as the site in 1908, as a result of survey work done by the government surveyor Charles Scrivener. The NSW government ceded the Federal Capital Territory (as it was then known) to the federal government. In an international design competition conducted by the Department of Home Affairs, on 24 May 1911, the design by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was chosen for the city, and in 1913 Griffin was appointed Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction and construction began. The plans included proposals for railed transport within the city, however none were to eventuate with Canberra's single interstate passenger station and goods yard remaining to the south at Kingston. During the construction of the principal buildings, there were a number of temporary construction railway lines laid to Civic in central Canberra.
On 12 March 1913, the city was officially given its name by Lady
Denman, the wife of the then Governor-General Lord Denman at a ceremony at Kurrajong
Hill, which has since become Capital Hill and the site of the present Parliament
House. Canberra Day is a public holiday observed in the city and the surrounding
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) on the second Monday in March to celebrate
the founding of Canberra.
The federal government moved to Canberra on 9 May 1927, with the opening of the Provisional Parliament House. The Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce had officially taken up residence in The Lodge a few days earlier. Planned development of the city slowed significantly during the depression of the 1930s and during World War II. Some projects planned for that time, for example, Roman Catholic and Anglican cathedrals, were never completed. The development of Canberra gained pace after the Second World War, and it has grown beyond the original planners' expectations since then. Several Government departments, together with public servants, were moved to Canberra from Melbourne following the war.
Canberra Hotels
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