A city and its people: Canberra in the Australian Dictionary of Biography

Abstract

A search of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) and the associated websites that make up the People Australia portal produces remarkably few individuals born in Canberra: just eight as of May 2019.2 To some extent, the shortage of Canberraborn figures in the ADB and its companion websites is a consequence of the city’s relatively recent founding, chosen as the future capital of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1908 and officially named in a ceremony a little more than 100 years ago. Designed and constructed to be the country’s capital, Canberra has been a city of immigrants. It is likely that the numbers of individuals born in Canberra whose stories are told in these websites will increase dramatically in the future, partly thanks to additions planned to the websites, but also reflecting the significance of the city’s role as Australia’s capital in the twentieth century and beyond. Despite the small numbers of Canberra-born, however, the People Australia websites include a wide array of people who have lived, worked, loved and fought in the Canberra district. In this essay, I explore Canberra’s history through some of the people who have shaped it, with a focus on those whose stories are told in the ADB and its associated websites.