Canberra - it gets verse and verse...

[Tabouli]

Amy Z wrote:

> That might well be it.  Anyone know the history behind how their state
> capital got to be the capital?  I love this stuff.

Vague memories of a battle between Geelong (snort) and Melbourne circa 1890s to be the capital of Victoria.  This time it was the bigger city that won the prize.  The more fierce and pitched battle between Melbourne and Sydney to be the capital of Australia (although I once read that this is urban myth not solid, verifiable Binns fact) apparently grew so vicious that the title was confiscated and they found the most boring piece of land between the two they could and built Canberra on it to be the national capital, in a Solomonian "so there" sort of spirit.

As one might expect, given such inauspicious beginnings, Canberra is never likely to set the world on fire (although a popular opinion among Australians, especially those who live there, is that evacuating all the politicans and public servants and setting Canberra itself on fire might be an improvement...).  I've been there twice, and it calls to mind a leafy suburb accidentally dropped in the foothills on the way to Sydney.  Safe, pretty, dull.  My father was driving around in it and we played a game of "spot the city centre"... just when you thought you'd entered a clump of tall buildings, you'd find yourself back in the relentless leafy suburb.  Even weirder, the award-winning designer came up with this roads based around two hilltop circles (Celtic ancestral memories?) and an artificial lake concept, the folly of which rapidly became apparent as more cars started to infiltrate the place.  The best thing about the place is the way the new Parliament House looks like it's floating over the old Parliament House...

David:
>Limericks are good.

(You really shouldn't tempt me like this...)

There once was a limerick writer,
Who took up her words like a fighter,
Her day's here!  It's time!
She loves writing rhyme!
Her future has never looked brighter...

Tabouli (who suspects that OT members will live to regret tempting her into writing silly verse...)


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