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Monday 9 May 2016

Cracking the Canberra Code

As a background for those unfamiliar with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), it is located in New South Wales (NSW), 280 km southwest of Sydney, with the city officially named Canberra on 12 March 1913 by Lady Gertrude Denman, the wife of the then Governor-General of Australia. The ceremony took place on Kurrajong Hill, which has since become Capital Hill. The indigenous word Kurrajong means ‘beautiful tree’.

The origin of the word ‘Canberra’ is a matter of dispute. Possibly it comes from the indigenous word Nganbira, a phonetically anglicised version meaning ‘the hollow between a woman’s breasts’. This clearly describes Canberra as a plain between the mountains, probably Mt. Ainslie and Black Mountain...read more>>>...