How to Ensure Australian-Made Furniture Meets Your Standards

Objects used to support human activities

For other uses, see Furniture (disambiguation).

Short visual history of furniture styles (from left to right): cloisonné plaque (Assyrian), Chair of Reniseneb (Ancient Egyptian), metal brazier with satyrs from Pompei (Greco-Roman), fall-front cabinet inlaid with ivory (Indian), low-back armchair (Chinese), casket with images of Cupids (Byzantine), wood and ivory furniture fragment (Islamic), chest (Gothic), analogion (Romanian Medieval), sideboard with two bodies (Renaissance), gilded table (Baroque), commode (Rococo), armchair with cornucopia (Louis XVI), secretary (Empire), fauteuil a joues armchair (19th century Eclecticism and/or Revivalism), vitrine (Art Nouveau), commode (Art Deco), IKEA kitchen cupboards and a table with glass top (Contemporary)

Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furniture is also used to hold objects at a convenient height for work (as horizontal surfaces above the ground, such as tables and desks), or to store things (e.g., cupboards, shelves, and drawers). Furniture can be a product of design and can be considered a form of decorative art. In addition to furniture's functional role, it can serve a symbolic or religious purpose. It can be made from a vast multitude of materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. Furniture can be made using a variety of woodworking joints which often reflects the local culture.

People have been using natural objects, such as tree stumps, rocks and moss, as furniture since the beginning of human civilization and continues today in some households/campsites. Archaeological research shows that from around 30,000 years ago, people started to construct and carve their own furniture, using wood, stone, and animal bones. Early furniture from this period is known from artwork such as a Venus figurine found in Russia, depicting the goddess on a throne. The first surviving extant furniture is in the homes of Skara Brae in Scotland, and includes cupboards, dressers and beds all constructed from stone. Complex construction techniques such as joinery began in the early dynastic period of ancient Egypt. This era saw constructed wooden pieces, including stools and tables, sometimes decorated with valuable metals or ivory. The evolution of furniture design continued in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, with thrones being commonplace as well as the klinai, multipurpose couches used for relaxing, eating, and sleeping. The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented. Furniture design expanded during the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. The seventeenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs. The nineteenth century is usually defined by revival styles. The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. One unique outgrowth of post-modern furniture design is a return to natural shapes and textures.^[1]

Etymology

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The English word furniture is derived from the French word fourniture,^[2] the noun form of fournir, which means to supply or provide.^[3] Thus fourniture in French means supplies or provisions.^[4] The English usage, referring specifically to household objects, is specific to that language;^[5] French and other Romance languages as well as German use variants of the word meubles, which derives from Latin mobilia, meaning "moveable goods".^[6]

History

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Prehistory

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The practice of using natural objects as rudimentary pieces of furniture likely dates to the beginning of human civilization.^[7] Early humans are likely to have used tree stumps as seats, rocks as rudimentary tables, and mossy areas for sleeping.^[7] During the late Paleolithic or early Neolithic period, from around 30,000 years ago, people began constructing and carving their own furniture, using wood, stone and animal bones.^[8] The earliest evidence for the existence of constructed furniture is a Venus figurine found at the Gagarino site in Russia, which depicts the goddess in a sitting position, on a throne.^[9] A similar statue of a seated woman was found in Çatalhöyük in Turkey, dating to between 6000 and 5500 BCE.^[7] The inclusion of such a seat in the figurines implies that these were already common artefacts of that age.^[9]

A range of unique stone furniture has been excavated in Skara Brae, a Neolithic village in Orkney, Scotland The site dates from 3100 to 2500 BCE and due to a shortage of wood in Orkney, the people of Skara Brae were forced to build with stone, a readily available material that could be worked easily and turned into items for use within the household. Each house shows a high degree of sophistication and was equipped with an extensive assortment of stone furniture, ranging from cupboards, dressers, and beds to shelves, stone seats, and limpet tanks. The stone dresser was regarded as the most important as it symbolically faces the entrance in each house and is therefore the first item seen when entering, perhaps displaying symbolic objects, including decorative artwork such as several Neolithic carved stone balls also found at the site.

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  The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük, a figurine discovered in Turkey and dated to approximately 6000 BC, is evidence that furniture already existed by that point.
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  A dresser with shelves furnishes a house in Skara Brae, a settlement in what is now Scotland that was occupied from about 3180–2500 BC
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  Cucuteni ritualic figurines sitting on miniature chairs; 4900–4750 BC; painted ceramic; Archaeology Museum Piatra NeamÈ› (Piatra NeamÈ›, Romania)
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  Cucuteni figurine staying on a miniature chair; 4750–4700 BC; ceramic; discovered at TârpeÈ™ti (modern-day Romania); Archaeology Museum Piatra NeamÈ›

Antiquity

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Ancient furniture has been excavated from the 8th-century BCE Phrygian tumulus, the Midas Mound, in Gordion, Turkey. Pieces found here include tables and inlaid serving stands. There are also surviving works from the 9th–8th-century BCE Assyrian palace of Nimrud. The earliest surviving carpet, the Pazyryk Carpet was discovered in a frozen tomb in Siberia and has been dated between the 6th and 3rd century BCE.

Civilization in ancient Egypt began with the clearance and irrigation of land along the banks of the River Nile,^[10] which began in about 6000 BCE. By that time, society in the Nile Valley was already engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings.^[11] At this period, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by around 4000 BCE The inhabitants of the Nile Valley and delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer (an early variety of wheat) and stored it in pits lined with reed mats.^[12] They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linens and baskets.^[12] Evidence of furniture from the predynastic period is scarce, but samples from First Dynasty tombs indicate an already advanced use of furnishings in the houses of the age.^[13]

During the Dynastic Period, which began in around 3200 BCE, Egyptian art developed significantly, and this included furniture design.^[14] Egyptian furniture was primarily constructed using wood, but other materials were sometimes used, such as leather,^[15] and pieces were often adorned with gold, silver, ivory and ebony, for decoration.^[15] Wood found in Egypt was not suitable for furniture construction, so it had to be imported into the country from other places,^[14] particularly Phoenicia.^[16] The scarcity of wood necessitated innovation in construction techniques. The use of scarf joints to join two shorter pieces together and form a longer beam was one example of this,^[17] as well as construction of veneers in which low quality cheap wood was used as the main building material, with a thin layer of expensive wood on the surface.^[18]

The earliest used seating furniture in the dynastic period was the stool, which was used throughout Egyptian society, from the royal family down to ordinary citizens.^[19] Various different designs were used, including stools with four vertical legs, and others with crossed splayed legs; almost all had rectangular seats, however.^[19] Examples include the workman's stool, a simple three legged structure with a concave seat, designed for comfort during labour,^[20] and the much more ornate folding stool, with crossed folding legs,^[21] which were decorated with carved duck heads and ivory,^[21] and had hinges made of bronze.^[19] Full chairs were much rarer in early Egypt, being limited to only wealthy and high ranking people, and seen as a status symbol; they did not reach ordinary households until the 18th dynasty.^[22] Early examples were formed by adding a straight back to a stool, while later chairs had an inclined back.^[22] Other furniture types in ancient Egypt include tables, which are heavily represented in art, but almost nonexistent as preserved items – perhaps because they were placed outside tombs rather than within,^[23] as well as beds and storage chests.^[24][25]

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  Stool with woven seat; 1991–1450 BC; wood & reed; height: 13 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Jewelry chest of Sithathoryunet; 1887–1813 BC; ebony, ivory, gold, carnelian, blue faience and silver; height: 36.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Chair of Hatnefer; 1492–1473 BC; boxwood, cypress, ebony & linen cord; height: 53 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  The Throne of Tutankhamun; 1336–1327 BC; wood covered with sheets of gold, silver, semi-precious and other stones, faience, glass and bronze; height: 1 m; Egyptian Museum (Cairo)

Historical knowledge of Greek furniture is derived from various sources, including literature, terracotta, sculptures, statuettes, and painted vases.^[26] Some pieces survive to this day, primarily those constructed from metals, including bronze, or marble.^[26] Wood was an important and common material in Greek furniture, both domestic and imported.^[26] A common technique was to construct the main sections of the furniture with cheap solid wood, then apply a veneer using an expensive wood, such as maple or ebony.^[26] Greek furniture construction also made use of dowels and tenons for joining the wooden parts of a piece together.^[26] Wood was shaped by carving, steam treatment, and the lathe, and furniture is known to have been decorated with ivory, tortoise shell, glass, gold or other precious materials.^[27]

The modern word "throne" is derived from the ancient Greek thronos (Greek singular: θρÏŒνος), which was a seat designated for deities or individuals of high status/hierarchy or honor.^[28] The colossal chryselephantine statue of Zeus at Olympia, constructed by Phidias and lost in antiquity, featured the god Zeus seated on an elaborate throne, which was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony and ivory, according to Pausanias.^[29] Other Greek seats included the klismos, an elegant Greek chair with a curved backrest and legs whose form was copied by the Romans and is now part of the vocabulary of furniture design,^[30] the backless stool (diphros), which existed in most Greek homes,^[31] and folding stool.^[32] The kline, used from the late seventh century BCE,^[33] was a multipurpose piece used as a bed, but also as a sofa and for reclining during meals.^[34] It was rectangular and supported on four legs, two of which could be longer than the other, providing support for an armrest or headboard.^[35] Mattresses, rugs, and blankets may have been used, but there is no evidence for sheets.^[34]

In general, Greek tables were low and often appear in depictions alongside klinai.^[36] The most common type of Greek table had a rectangular top supported on three legs, although numerous configurations exist, including trapezoid and circular.^[37] Tables in ancient Greece were used mostly for dining purposes – in depictions of banquets, it appears as though each participant would have used a single table, rather than a collective use of a larger piece.^[38] Tables also figured prominently in religious contexts, as indicated in vase paintings, for example, the wine vessel associated with Dionysus, dating to around 450 BCE and now housed at the Art Institute of Chicago.^[39] Chests were used for storage of clothes and personal items and were usually rectangular with hinged lids.^[37] Chests depicted in terracotta show elaborate patterns and design, including the Greek fret.^[34]

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  Foot in the form of a sphinx; circa 600 BC; bronze; overall: 27.6 x 20.3 x 16.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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  Rod tripod stand; early 6th century BC; bronze; overall: 75.2 x 44.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Pelike which depicts a boy carrying furniture for a symposium (drinking party), in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
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  Funerary stele in which appears somebody staying on a klismos, from circa 410–400 BC, in the National Archaeological Museum (Athens, Greece)

Roman furniture was based heavily on Greek furniture, in style and construction. Rome gradually superseded Greece as the foremost culture of Europe, leading eventually to Greece becoming a province of Rome in 146 BC. Rome thus took over production and distribution of Greek furniture, and the boundary between the two is blurred. The Romans did have some limited innovation outside of Greek influence, and styles distinctly their own.^[40]

Roman furniture was constructed principally using wood, metal and stone, with marble and limestone used for outside furniture. Very little wooden furniture survives intact, but there is evidence that a variety of woods were used, including maple, citron, beech, oak, and holly. Some imported wood such as satinwood was used for decoration. The most commonly used metal was bronze, of which numerous examples have survived, for example, headrests for couches and metal stools. Similar to the Greeks, Romans used tenons, dowels, nails, and glue to join wooden pieces together, and also practised veneering.^[40]

The 1738 and 1748 excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii revealed Roman furniture, preserved in the ashes of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius.

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  Illustration of Roman furniture details, from 1900, very similar with Empire style furniture
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  Tripod base; circa 100 BC; bronze; overall: 77 x 32.3 x 28 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)
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  Treasure chest with a sacrifice of Jupiter depicted on it; 1st century AD; wood, iron and bronze, with ageminature; from Pompeii; Naples National Archaeological Museum (Naples, Italy)
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  Couch and footstool with bone carvings and glass inlays; 1st–2nd century AD; wood, bone and glass; couch: 105.4 × 76.2 × 214.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Unlike the ancient western civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, there is comparatively little evidence of furniture from the 5th to the 15th century.^[41] Very few extant pieces survive, and evidence in literature is also scarce.^[41] It is likely that the style of furniture prevalent in late antiquity persisted throughout the Middle Ages.^[41] For example, a throne similar to that of Zeus is depicted in a sixth-century diptych,^[41] while the Bayeux tapestry shows Edward the Confessor and Harold seated on seats similar to the Roman sella curulis.^[42] The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented with carved designs.

The Hellenistic influence upon Byzantine furniture can be seen through the use of acanthus leaves, palmettes, bay and olive leaves as ornaments. Oriental influences manifest through rosettes, arabesques and the geometric stylisation of certain vegetal motifs. Christianity brings symbols in Byzantine ornamentation: the pigeon, fishes, the lamb and vines.^[43] The furniture from Byzantine houses and palaces was usually luxurious, highly decorated and finely ornamented. Stone, marble, metal, wood and ivory are used. Surfaces and ornaments are gilded, painted plychrome, plated with sheets of gold, emailed in bright colors, and covered in precious stones. The variety of Byzantine furniture is pretty big: tables with square, rectangle or round top, sumptuous decorated, made of wood sometimes inlaid, with bronze, ivory or silver ornaments; chairs with high backs and with wool blankets or animal furs, with coloured pillows, and then banks and stools; wardrobes were used only for storing books; cloths and valuable objects were kept in chests, with iron locks; the form of beds imitated the Roman ones, but have different designs of legs.^[44]

The main ornament of Gothic furniture and all applied arts is the ogive. The geometric rosette accompanies the ogive many times, having a big variety of forms. Architectural elements are used at furniture, at the beginning with purely decorative reasons, but later as structure elements. Besides the ogive, the main ornaments are: acanthus leaves, ivy, oak leaves, haulms, clovers, fleurs-de-lis, knights with shields, heads with crowns and characters from the Bible. Chests are the main type of Gothic furniture used by the majority of the population. Usually, the locks and escutcheon of chests have also an ornamental scope, being finely made.^[45]

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  Throne of Dagobert; 19th and 12th centuries (backrest); gilt bronze; unknown dimensions; Cabinet des Médailles (Paris)^[46]
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  Gothic coffret (Minnekästchen); circa 1325–1350; oak, inlay, tempera, wrought-iron mounts; overall: 12.1 x 27.3 x 16.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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  Gothic chest; late 15th century; wood; 30.2 x 29.2 x 39.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Gothic chest; late 15th century; walnut and iron; overall: 47 x 38.7 x 75.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Romanian analogion; second quarter of the 16th century; carved, openwork and champlevé wood; 115 x 58 x 65 cm; from the Probota Monastery (Suceava County); National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest)^[47]
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  Russian Monomakhov throne, 1551, wood, unknown dimensions, Dormition Cathedral, Moscow

Along with the other arts, the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century marked a rebirth in design, often inspired by the Greco-Roman tradition. A similar explosion of design, and renaissance of culture in general occurred in Northern Europe, starting in the fifteenth century.

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  Sideboard; c.1524; wood; height: 144 cm; Château d'Écouen (Écouen, France)^[48]
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  Wardrobe; c.1530; carved walnut; height: 230 cm; Château d'Écouen^[49]
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  Cassone (chest); c.1550–1560; carved and partially gilded walnut; 86.4 x 181.9 x 67.3 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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  Cupboard; c.1570; wood; height: 246 cm; Château d'Écouen^[50]
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  Cupboard; c. 1580; walnut and oak, partially gilded and painted; height: 2.06 m, width: 1.50 m; Louvre^[51]

The 17th century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs that frequently incorporated a profusion of vegetal and scrolling ornament. Starting in the eighteenth century, furniture designs began to develop more rapidly. Although there were some styles that belonged primarily to one nation, such as Palladianism in Great Britain or Louis Quinze in French furniture, others, such as the Rococo and Neoclassicism were perpetuated throughout Western Europe.

During the 18th century, the fashion was set in England by the French art. In the beginning of the century Boulle cabinets were at the peak of their popularity and Louis XIV was reigning in France. In this era, most of the furniture had metal and enamelled decorations in it and some of the furniture was covered in inlays of marbles lapis lazuli, and porphyry and other stones. By mid-century this Baroque style was displaced by the graceful curves, shining ormolu, and intricate marquetry of the Rococo style, which in turn gave way around 1770 to the more severe lines of Neoclassicism, modeled after the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome.^[52] Creating a mass market for furniture, the distinguished London cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director (1754) is regarded as the "first comprehensive trade catalogue of its kind".^[53]

There is something so distinct in the development of taste in French furniture, marked out by the three styles to which the three monarchs have given the name of "Louis Quatorze", "Louis Quinze", and "Louis Seize". This will be evident to anyone who will visit, first the Palace of Versailles, then the Grand Trianon, and afterwards the Petit Trianon.^[54]

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  Baroque four-poster bed from the Château d'Effiat; c.1650; natural walnut, chiselled Genoa silk velvet and embroidered silks; 295 cm; Louvre^[55]
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  Baroque pier table; 1685–1690; carved, gessoed, and gilded wood, with a marble top; 83.6 × 128.6 × 71.6 cm; Art Institute of Chicago (US)^[56]
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  Baroque cupboard; by André Charles Boulle; c.1700; ebony and amaranth veneering, polychrome woods, brass, tin, shell, and horn marquetry on an oak frame, gilt-bronze; 255.5 x 157.5 cm; Louvre^[57]
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  Baroque commode; by André Charles Boulle; c.1710-1732; walnut veneered with ebony and marquetry of engraved brass and tortoiseshell, gilt-bronze mounts, antique marble top; 87.6 x 128.3 x 62.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)^[58]
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  Baroque slant-front desk; by Heinrich Ludwig Rohde or Ferdinand Plitzner; c.1715–1725; marquetry with maple, amaranth, mahogany, and walnut on spruce and oak; 90 × 84 × 44.5 cm; Art Institute of Chicago^[59]
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  Rococo console table; 18th century; carved and gilded wood, marble top; 63.2 × 60 × 25.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Rococo commode; by Charles Cressent; c.1745–1749; pine and oak veneered with amaranth and bois satiné, walnut, oak, pine; gilt-bronze, portoro marble top; 87.6 x 139.7 x 57.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Rococo slant-top desk; c.1750; oak, kingwood marquetry, amaranth wood, satiné, gilt bronze; unknown dimensions; Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris)^[60]
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  Rococo side table (commode en console); by Bernard II van Risamburgh; c.1755-1760; Japanese lacquer, gilt-bronze and Sarrancolin marble top; height: 90.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Bureau du Roi (Rococo); by Jean-François Oeben and Jean Henri Riesener; 1760–1769; bronze, marquetry of a variety of fine woods and Sèvres porcelain; 147.3 x 192.5 x 105; Palace of Versailles (Versailles, France)^[61]
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  Louis XVI style commode of Madame du Barry; by Martin Carlin (attribution); 1772; oak base veneered with pearwood, rosewood and amaranth, soft-paste Sèvres porcelain, bronze gilt, white marble; 87 x 119 cm; Louvre^[62]
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  Louis XVI style roll-top desk of Marie-Antoinette; by Jean-Henri Riesener; 1784; oak and pine frame, sycamore, amaranth and rosewood veneer, bronze gilt; 103.6 x 113.4 cm; Louvre^[63]
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  Louis XVI style writing table of Marie-Antoinette; by Adam Weisweiler; 1784; oak, ebony and sycamore veneer, Japanese lacquer, steel, bronze gilt; 73.7 x 81. 2 cm; Louvre^[63]
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  Louis XVI style folding stool (pliant); 1786; carved and painted beechwood, covered in pink silk; 46.4 × 68.6 × 51.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Louis XVI style armchair (fauteuil) from Louis XVI's Salon des Jeux at Saint Cloud; 1788; carved and gilded walnut, gold brocaded silk (not original); overall: 100 × 74.9 × 65.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

The nineteenth century is usually defined by concurrent revival styles, including Gothic, Neoclassicism, and Rococo. The design reforms of the late century introduced the Aesthetic movement and the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Nouveau was influenced by both of these movements. Shaker-style furniture became popular during this time in North America as well.

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  Empire desk chair; c.1805–1808; mahogany, gilt bronze and satin-velvet upholstery; 87.6 × 59.7 × 64.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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  Empire console table; 1804–1814; mahogany, gilded bronze, chiseled gilded bronze and fossil gray marble; 91.5 x 154 x 73.5 cm; Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris)^[64]
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  Empire throne; by Bernard Poyet and François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter; 1805; carved and gilded wood, covered in red velvet with silver embroidery; 160 x 110 x 82 cm; Musée des Arts Décoratifs^[65]
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  Egyptian Revival coin cabinet; 1809–1819; mahogany (probably Swietenia mahagoni), with applied and inlaid silver; 90.2 x 50.2 x 37.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  King of Rome's Cradle (Empire); by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Henri Victor Roguier, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot and Pierre-Philippe Thomire; 1811; wood, silver gilt, mother-of-pearl, sheets of copper covered with velvet, silk and tulle, decorated with silver and gold thread; height: 216 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)^[66]
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  Chair (one of a pair) from the Gothic Cabinet of the Osmond Countess; by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter; before 1817–1820; gilt wood; unknown dimensions; Petit Palais (Paris)
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  Gothic Revival Chair; 1845–1865; walnut frame with upholstered seat and back; unknown dimensions; Huntington Museum of Art (Huntington, West Virginia, USA)
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  tête-à-tête (Second Empire); 1850–1860; rosewood, ash, pine and walnut; 113 x 132.1 x 109.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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  Desk; designed by Frank Furness, made by Daniel Pabst; 1870–1871; walnut, walnut veneer, rosewood (knobs), brass, iron, steel and glass; 196.9 × 157.5 × 81.9 cm; Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, USA)^[67]
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  Table (Rococo Revival); c.1880; wood, ormolu and lacquer; 68.9 x 26.99 x 38.42 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, USA)
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  Chair (Art Nouveau); by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo; c.1883; mahogany; 97.79 x 49.53 x 49.53 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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  Desk (Art Nouveau), presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition; by Émile Gallé; 1900; molded and carved oak, with chiseled and patinated bronze; height: 108.5 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)^[68]

This design was in many ways rooted in necessity and emphasizes both form and materials. Early British Colonial American^[vague] chairs and tables are often constructed with turned spindles and chair backs often constructed with steaming to bend the wood. Wood choices tend to be deciduous hardwoods with a particular emphasis on the wood of edible or fruit bearing trees such as cherry or walnut.^[69]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2023)

The first three-quarters of the 20th century is seen as the march towards Modernism. The furniture designers of Art Deco, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Jugendstil, Wiener Werkstätte, and Vienna Secession all worked to some degree within the Modernist motto.

Born from the Bauhaus and Streamline Moderne came the post-World War II style "Mid-Century Modern". Mid-Century Modern materials developed during the war including laminated plywood, plastics, and fiberglass. Prime examples include furniture designed by George Nelson Associates, Charles and Ray Eames, Paul McCobb, Florence Knoll, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, Harvey Probber, Vladimir Kagan and Danish modern designers including Finn Juhl and Arne Jacobsen.

Industrialisation, Post-Modernism, and the Internet have allowed furniture design to become more accessible to a wider range of people than ever before. There are many modern styles of furniture design, each with roots in Classical, Modernist, and Post-Modern design and art movements. The growth of Maker Culture across the Western sphere of influence has encouraged higher participation and development of new, more accessible furniture design techniques. One unique outgrowth of this post-modern furniture design trajectory is live edge, which incorporates the natural surface of a tree as part of a furniture object, heralding a resurgence of these natural shapes and textures within the home.^[1] Additionally, the use of epoxy resin has become more prevalent in DIY furniture styles.

Great efforts from individuals, governments, and companies has led to the manufacturing of products with higher sustainability known as Ecodesign. This new line of furniture is based on environmentally friendly design. Its use and popularity are increasing each year.^[70]

Postmodern design, intersecting the Pop art movement, gained steam in the 1960s and 70s, promoted in the 80s by groups such as the Italy-based Memphis movement. Transitional furniture is intended to fill a place between Traditional and Modern tastes.^{[citation needed]}

Asian furniture has a quite distinct history. The traditions out of India, China, Korea, Pakistan, Indonesia (Bali and Java) and Japan are some of the best known, but places such as Mongolia, and the countries of South East Asia have unique facets of their own.

The use of uncarved wood and bamboo and the use of heavy lacquers are well known Chinese styles. It is worth noting that Chinese furniture varies dramatically from one dynasty to the next. Chinese ornamentation is highly inspired by paintings, with floral and plant life motifs including bamboo trees, chrysanthemums, waterlilies, irises, magnolias, flowers and branches of cherry, apple, apricot and plum, or elongated bamboo leaves; animal ornaments include lions, bulls, ducks, peacocks, parrots, pheasants, roosters, ibises and butterflies. The dragon is the symbol of earth fertility, and of the power and wisdom of the emperor. Lacquers are mostly populated with princesses, various Chinese people, soldiers, children, ritually and daily scenes. Architectural features tend toward geometric ornaments, like meanders and labyrinths. The interior of a Chinese house was simple and sober. All Chinese furniture is made of wood, usually ebony, teak, or rosewood for heavier furniture (chairs, tables and benches) and bamboo, pine and larch for lighter furniture (stools and small chairs).^[71]

Traditional Japanese furniture is well known for its minimalist style, extensive use of wood, high-quality craftsmanship and reliance on wood grain instead of painting or thick lacquer. Japanese chests are known as Tansu, known for elaborate decorative iron work, and are some of the most sought-after of Japanese antiques. The antiques available generally date back to the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. Both the technique of lacquering and the specific lacquer (resin of Rhus vernicifera) originated in China, but the lacquer tree also grows well in Japan. The recipes of preparation are original to Japan: resin is mixed with wheat flour, clay or pottery powder, turpentine, iron powder or wood coal. In ornamentation, the chrysanthemum, known as kiku, the national flower, is a very popular ornament, including the 16-petal chrysanthemum symbolizing the Emperor. Cherry and apple flowers are used for decorating screens, vases and shōji. Common animal ornaments include dragons, carps, cranes, gooses, tigers, horses and monkeys; representations of architecture such as houses, pavilions, towers, torii gates, bridges and temples are also common. The furniture of a Japanese house consists of tables, shelves, wardrobes, small holders for flowers, bonsais or for bonkei, boxes, lanterns with wooden frames and translucent paper, neck and elbow holders, and jardinieres.^[72]

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  Chinese low-back armchair; late 16th-18th century (late Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty); huanghuali rosewood; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Washington D.C.)
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  Japanese incense guessing game; 1615–1868; lacquer; overall: 23 x 25.4 x 16.6 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, US)
• 
  Chinese pedestal desk; 1644–1911; huanghuali wood (yellow flowering pear) with brass fittings; Portland Art Museum (Portland, Oregon, USA)
• 
  Japanese chest with cartouche showing figures on donkeys in a landscape; 1750–1800; carved red lacquer on wood core with metal fittings and jade lock; 30.64 x 30.16 x 12.7 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)
• 
  Japanese tiered food Box with stand; late 18th century; red lacquer over a wood core, with litharge painting and engraved gold designs; overall: 53 x 68 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Chinese moon-gate bed; circa 1876; satinwood (huang lu), other Asian woods and ivory; Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts, USA)
• 
  Chinese canopy bed; late 19th or early 20th century; carved lacquered and gilded wood; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, Canada)
• 
  Japanese writing table; early 20th century; lacquered wood with silver fittings and various other materials; height: 12.3 cm, length: 60.96 cm, width: 36.83 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Seating is amongst the oldest known furniture types, and authors including Encyclopædia Britannica regard it as the most important.^[2] In addition to the functional design, seating has had an important decorative element from ancient times to the present day. This includes carved and sculpted pieces intended as works of art, as well as the styling of seats to indicate social importance, with senior figures or leaders granted the use of specially designed seats.^[2]

The simplest form of seat is the chair,^[73] which is a piece of furniture designed to allow a single person to sit down, which has a back and legs, as well as a platform for sitting.^[74] Chairs often feature cushions made from various fabrics.^[75]

• 
  Ancient Egyptian armchair of Tutankhamun; 1336–1326 BC; wood, ebony, ivory and gold leaf; height: 71 cm; Exposition of Tutankhamun Treasure in Paris (2019)
• 
  Neoclassical chair; circa 1772; mahogany, covered in modern red Morocco leather; height: 97.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
• 
  Louis XVI armchair (Fauteuil à la reine); 1780–1785; carved and gilded walnut, and embroidered silk satin; height: 102.2 cm, width: 74.9 cm, depth: 77.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Louis XVI settee; designed in circa 1786, woven 1790–91, settee frame from the second half 19th century; carved and gilded wood, with wool and silk; 107.3 × 191.5 × 71.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

All different types of woods have unique signature marks that can help in easy identification of the type. Hardwood and softwood are the two main categories for wood.

Both hardwoods and softwoods are used in furniture manufacturing, and each has its own specific uses. Deciduous trees, which have broad leaves that change color periodically throughout the year, are the source of hardwood. Coniferous trees, also known as cone-bearing trees, have small leaves or needles that stay on the tree throughout the year.^[76][77]

Common softwoods used include pine, redwood and yew. Higher quality furniture tends to be made out of hardwood, including oak, maple, mahogany, teak, walnut, cherry and birch. Highest quality wood will have been air dried to rid it of its moisture.^[78]

A popular furniture hardwood is American black cherry. Cherry is a light reddish brown to brown color that intensifies into a rich color as it ages, and grows mostly in the eastern United States. Cherry has a tighter grain than birch and is softer. Much cherry lumber is narrow, and it has been utilized to make many lovely classic furniture pieces.^[76]

Birch is a sturdy, durable, even-textured hardwood that is common in the United States and Canada. The wood appears white or creamy yellow to light brown with a crimson tinge in its natural state. Birch is frequently stained to complement other types of wood in furniture. Birch is used to make a lot of transparent, cabinet-grade plywood because it absorbs stain well and finishes beautifully. Birch is frequently used to construct interior doors and cupboards in addition to furniture.^[76]

Rubberwood is a widely used material in modern Asian furniture manufacturing.^[79] Affordable and fast-growing, it is often employed as a sustainable substitute for traditional Western hardwoods, allowing manufacturers to replicate the look and feel of classic lumber in contemporary furniture.^[80]

Known for its durability and sustainability, wood is widely used in furniture manufacturing. Dining tables are among the most common furniture made from wood, and there are many types of wooden tables—such as acacia, birch, mango, and oak.

Restoring a piece of furniture may imply attempting to repair and revive the original finish in some way. More often than not, this entails removing the existing treatment and preparing the raw wood for a new finish. Methods for repair depend on what kind of wood it is: solid or veneered, hardwood or softwood, open grained or closed grained. These variables can sometimes decide if a piece of furniture is worth repairing, as well as the type of repairs and finish it will require if it is restored. The 3 methods of restoring furniture are rejuvenate, repair, and refinish.

Rejuvenate The piece can easily be restored by just cleaning and waxing the surface while preserving the current finish. It works on wooden furniture that is still in good shape and is the simplest way to clean it.

Repair This process can fix dents and cracks by touching up some worn-out areas without removing the surface with this technique, the finish can be maintained while repairing the object with specialized products.

Refinish Remove anything that is left for example any paint with a finish-stripper product or lightly sanding the area down and then applying wood finish like oil wax in order to protect the secure the wood.^[76]

Cleaning Remove dirt, dust, and grime from the furniture using a mild soap or specialized furniture cleaner.

This section is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this section, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (October 2018)

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this section, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new section, as appropriate. (October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• EN 527 Office furniture – Work tables and desks: This European standard specifies requirements and test methods for office work tables and desks, ensuring their functionality and safety.
• EN 1335 Office furniture – Office work chair: This European standard sets requirements for office chairs, focusing on ergonomics and comfort to promote user well-being and productivity.
• ANSI/BIFMA X 5.1 Office Seating: This American National Standard, published by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), provides requirements for the performance and durability of office seating.
• DIN 4551 Office furniture; revolving office chair: This German standard covers revolving office chairs with adjustable backrests, armrests, and height, ensuring their quality and safety.
• EN 581 Outdoor furniture – Seating and tables for camping, domestic and contract use: This European standard specifies the requirements for outdoor seating and tables used in various settings, including camping and domestic use.
• EN 1728:2014 Furniture – Seating – Test methods for the determination of strength and durability: This European standard outlines test methods to assess the strength and durability of seating furniture, last updated in 2014.
• EN 1730:2012 Furniture – Test methods for the determination of stability, strength, and durability: This European standard provides test methods to evaluate the stability, strength, and durability of various types of furniture.
• BS 4875 Furniture. Strength and stability of furniture: This British Standard focuses on determining the stability of non-domestic storage furniture, helping ensure its safety and reliability.
• EN 747 Furniture – Bunk beds and high beds – Test methods for the determination of stability, strength, and durability: This European standard sets test methods to assess the stability, strength, and durability of bunk beds and high beds.
• EN 13150 Workbenches for laboratories – Safety requirements and test methods: This European standard specifies safety requirements and test methods for laboratory workbenches to ensure safe working conditions.
• EN 1729 Educational furniture, chairs, and tables for educational institutions: This European standard outlines requirements for educational furniture, including chairs and tables, to support comfort and ergonomics in educational settings.
• RAL-GZ 430 Furniture standard from Germany: RAL is a German standardization organization, and RAL-GZ 430 provides guidelines and standards for various types of furniture in Germany.
• NEN 1812 Furniture standard from the Netherlands: NEN is the Dutch Institute for Standardization, and NEN 1812 sets standards for furniture in the Netherlands.
• GB 28007-2011 Children's furniture – General technical requirements for children's furniture: This Chinese standard specifies technical requirements for children's furniture designed and manufactured for children aged 3 to 14.
• BS 5852: 2006 Methods of test for assessment of the ignitability of upholstered seating: This British Standard outlines test methods to assess the ignitability of upholstered seating, both by smoldering and flaming ignition sources.
• BS 7176: This British Standard specifies requirements for the resistance to ignition of upholstered furniture used in non-domestic settings through composite testing. These standards help ensure the quality, safety, and performance of various types of furniture in different regions and applications. Manufacturers and consumers often use these standards as guidelines to meet specific requirements and ensure product reliability.

• Casters which make some furniture moveable
• Furniture designer
• Furniture museum
• Furniture repair
• Metal furniture
• Multifunctional furniture

Wikiquote has quotations related to Furniture.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Furniture.

• Images of online furniture design available from the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) – including images from the Design Council Slide Collection.
• History of Furniture Timeline Archived 14 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine From Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, University of Victoria
• Illustrated History Of Furniture
• Home Economics Archive: Tradition, Research, History (HEARTH)
  An e-book collection of over 1,000 books on home economics spanning 1850 to 1950, created by Cornell University's Mann Library. Includes several hundred works on the furniture and interior design in this period, itemized in a specific bibliography.
• American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fully digitized 2 volume exhibition catalog

Capital city of Australia

This article is about the capital of Australia. For other uses, see Canberra (disambiguation).

 

City in Australian Capital Territory, Australia

• Canberra
• Fenner
• Bean^[6]

Canberra Kanbarra (Ngunawal)
City
Canberra viewed from Mount Ainslie National Carillon Australian War Memorial Telstra Tower National Library of Australia National Gallery of Australia Capital Hill and Old Parliament House
Canberra
Interactive city map
Coordinates: 35°17′35″S 149°07′37″E / 35.29306°S 149.12694°E / -35.29306; 149.12694
Country	Australia
State	Australian Capital Territory
Location	285 km (177 mi) SW of Sydney[1] 669 km (416 mi) NE of Melbourne[2] 1,160 km (720 mi) E of Adelaide[3] 1,232 km (766 mi) SSW of Brisbane[4] 3,632 km (2,257 mi) ESE of Perth[5]
Established	12 March 1913
Government
• Territory electorates	Brindabella Ginninderra Kurrajong Murrumbidgee Yerrabi
• Federal divisions
Area [10]
• Total	814.2 km2 (314.4 sq mi)
Elevation [9]	578 m (1,896 ft)
Population
• Total	473,855 (June 2024)[8] (8th)
• Density	503.932/km2 (1,305.18/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+10:00 (AEST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+11:00 (AEDT)
Mean max temp	20.4 °C (68.7 °F)
Mean min temp	7.0 °C (44.6 °F)
Annual rainfall	579.5 mm (22.81 in)

Canberra (/ˈkænbrÉ™/ ^ⓘ KAN-brÉ™; Ngunawal: Kanbarra) is the capital city of Australia and the capital and largest city of the Australian Capital Territory. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city, and the eighth-largest Australian city by population. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory^[11] at the northern tip of the Australian Alps, the country's highest mountain range. As of June 2024,^[update] Canberra's estimated population was 473,855.^[8]

The area chosen for the capital had been inhabited by Aboriginal Australians for up to 21,000 years,^[12] by groups including the Ngunnawal and Ngambri.^[13]

European settlement commenced in the first half of the 19th century, as evidenced by surviving landmarks such as St John's Anglican Church and Blundells Cottage. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies of Australia was achieved. Following a long dispute over whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the national capital,^[14] a compromise was reached: the new capital would be built in New South Wales, so long as it was at least 100 mi (160 km) from Sydney.

The capital city was founded and formally named as Canberra in 1913. A plan by the American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected after an international design contest, and construction commenced in 1913.^[15][16] Unusual among Australian cities, it is an entirely planned city. The Griffins' plan featured geometric motifs and was centred on axes aligned with significant topographical landmarks such as Black Mountain, Mount Ainslie, Capital Hill and City Hill. Canberra's mountainous location makes it the only mainland Australian city where snow-capped mountains can be seen for much of the winter, although snow in the city itself is uncommon.

As the seat of the Government of Australia, Canberra is home to many important institutions of the federal government, national monuments and museums. These include Parliament House, Government House, the High Court building and the headquarters of numerous government agencies. It is the location of many social and cultural institutions of national significance such as the Australian War Memorial, the Australian National University, the Royal Australian Mint, the Australian Institute of Sport, the National Gallery, the National Museum and the National Library. The city is home to many important institutions of the Australian Defence Force including the Royal Military College Duntroon and the Australian Defence Force Academy. It hosts all foreign embassies in Australia as well as regional headquarters of many international organisations, not-for-profit groups, lobbying groups and professional associations.

Canberra has been ranked among the world's best cities to live in and visit.^{[17][18][19][20][21]} Although the Commonwealth Government remains the largest single employer in Canberra, it is no longer the majority employer. Other major industries have developed in the city, including in health care, professional services, education and training, retail, accommodation and food, and construction.^[22] Compared to the national averages, the unemployment rate is lower and the average income higher; tertiary education levels are higher, while the population is younger. At the 2021 Census, 28.7% of Canberra's inhabitants were reported as having been born overseas.^[23]

Canberra's design is influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation. Its design can be viewed from its highest point at the Telstra Tower and the summit of Mount Ainslie. Other notable features include the National Arboretum, born out of the 2003 Canberra bushfires, and Lake Burley Griffin, named for Walter Burley Griffin.

Highlights in the annual calendar of cultural events include Floriade, the largest flower festival in the Southern Hemisphere,^[24][25] the Enlighten Festival, Skyfire, the National Multicultural Festival and Summernats. Canberra's main sporting venues are Canberra Stadium and Manuka Oval. The city is served with domestic and international flights at Canberra Airport, while interstate train and coach services depart from Canberra railway station and the Jolimont Centre respectively. City Interchange and Alinga Street station form the main hub of Canberra's bus and light rail transport network.

Name

[edit]

The word "Canberra" is derived from the Ngunnawal language of a local Ngunnawal or Ngambri clan who resided in the area and were referred to by the early British colonists as either the Canberry, Kanberri or Nganbra tribe.^[26][27] Joshua John Moore, the first European land-owner in the region, named his grant "Canberry" in 1823 after these people. "Canberry Creek" and "Canberry" first appeared on regional maps from 1830, while the derivative name "Canberra" started to appear from around 1857.^[28][29][30] Other early recorded variants of the spelling include "Canbury" (potentially influenced by the settlement of the same name in England), "Canburry" and "Kembery".^[31]

Numerous local commentators, including the Ngunnawal elder Don Bell, have speculated upon possible meanings of "Canberra" over the years. These include "meeting place", "woman's breasts" and "the hollow between a woman's breasts".^[32][33]

Alternative proposals for the name of the city during its planning included Austral, Australville, Aurora, Captain Cook, Caucus City, Cookaburra, Dampier, Eden, Eucalypta, Flinders, Gonebroke, Home, Hopetoun, Kangaremu, Myola, Meladneyperbane, New Era, Olympus, Paradise, Shakespeare, Sydmelperadbrisho, Swindleville, The National City, Union City, Unison, Wattleton, Wheatwoolgold, Yass-Canberra.^[34][35][36]

History

[edit]

The first peoples of the Canberra area include the Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples.^[13] Other groups claiming a connection to the land include the Ngarigo (who also lived directly to the south) and the Ngambri-Guumaal.^[26] Neighbouring groups include the Wandandian to the east, the Walgulu also to the south, Gandangara people to the north and Wiradjuri to the north-west.

The first British settlers into the Canberra area described two clans of Ngunnawal people resident to the vicinity. The Canberry or Nganbra clan lived mostly around Sullivan's Creek and had ceremonial grounds at the base of Galambary (Black Mountain), while the Pialligo clan had land around what is now Canberra Airport.^[37][38] The people living here carefully managed and cultivated the land with fire, farmed yams, and hunted for food.^[39]

Archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock paintings and engravings, burial places, camps and quarry sites as well as stone tools and arrangements.^[40] Artefacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in the area 21,000 years previously.^[12]

Still today, Ngunnawal men into the present conduct ceremony on the banks of the river, Murrumbidgee River. They travel upstream as they receive their Totems and corresponding responsibilities for land management. 'Murrum' means 'Pathway' and Bidgee means 'Boss'.^[39]

The submerged limestone caves beneath Lake Burley Griffin contained Aboriginal rock art, some of the only sites in the region.^[39]

Galambary (Black Mountain) is an important Aboriginal meeting and business site, predominantly for men's business. According to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, Mt Ainslie is primarily for place of women's business. Black Mountain and Mount Ainslie are referred to as women's breasts. Galambary was also used by Ngunnawal people as an initiation site, with the mountain itself said to represent the growth of a boy into a man.^[39]

In October 1820, Charles Throsby Smith led the first British expedition to the area.^{[42][43][44][45]} Four other expeditions occurred between 1820 and 1823 with the first accurate map being produced by explorer Mark John Currie in June 1823. By this stage, the area had become known as the Limestone Plains.^[42][46]

British settlement of the area probably dates from late 1823, when a sheep station was formed on what is now the Acton Peninsula by James Cowan, the head stockman employed by Joshua John Moore.^[47] Moore had received a land grant in the region in 1823 and formally applied to purchase the site on 16 December 1826. He named the property "Canberry". On 30 April 1827, Moore was told by letter that he could retain possession of 1,000 acres (405 ha) at Canberry.^[48]

Other colonists soon followed Moore's example to take up land in the region. Around 1825, James Ainslie, working on behalf of the wealthy merchant Robert Campbell, arrived to establish a sheep station. He was guided to the region by a local Aboriginal girl who showed him the fine lands of her Pialligo clan.^[37] The area then became the property of Campbell and it was initially named Pialligo before Campbell changed it to the Scottish title of Duntroon.^[28][49][50] Campbell and his family built a dairy on the site in 1832, now regarded as the oldest standing European building in Canberra,^[51][52][53] followed by the imposing stone house that is now the officers' mess of the Royal Military College, Duntroon.^[54] The Campbells sponsored settlement by other farmer families to work their land, such as the Southwells of "Weetangera".^[55]

Other notable early colonists included Henry Donnison, who established the Yarralumla estate—now the site of the official residence of the Governor-General of Australia—in 1827, and John Palmer who employed Duncan Macfarlane to form the Jerrabomberra property in 1828. A year later, John MacPherson established the Springbank estate, becoming the first British owner-occupier in the region.^[28][56][57]

The Anglican church of St John the Baptist, in the suburb of Reid,^[58] was consecrated in 1845, and is now the oldest surviving public building in the city.^[59][60] St John's churchyard contains the earliest graves in the district.^[61] It has been described as a "sanctuary in the city",^[62][63] remaining a small English village-style church even as the capital grew around it. Canberra's first school, St John's School (now a museum), was situated next to the church and opened in the same year of 1845.^[64] It was built to educate local settlers children,^[65] including the Blundell children who lived in nearby Blundell's Cottage.^[66]

As the European presence increased, the Indigenous population dwindled largely due to the destruction of their society, dislocation from their lands and from introduced diseases such as influenza, smallpox, alcoholism, and measles.^[67][68]

The district's change from a rural area in New South Wales to the national capital started during debates over federation in the late 19th century.^[69][70] Following a long dispute over whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the national capital,^[14] a compromise was reached: the new capital would be built in New South Wales, so long as it was at least 100 mi (160 km) from Sydney,^[69] with Melbourne to be the temporary seat of government while the new capital was built.^[71] A survey was conducted across several sites in New South Wales with Bombala, southern Monaro, Orange, Yass, Albury, Tamworth, Armidale, Tumut, and Dalgety all discussed.^[72] Dalgety was chosen by the federal parliament and it passed the Seat of Government Act 1904 confirming Dalgety as the site of the nation's capital. However, the New South Wales government refused to cede the required territory as they did not accept the site.^[72] In 1906, the New South Wales Government finally agreed to cede sufficient land provided that it was in the Yass-Canberra region as this site was closer to Sydney.^[69] Newspaper proprietor John Gale circulated a pamphlet titled 'Dalgety or Canberra: Which?' advocating Canberra to every member of the Commonwealth's seven state and federal parliaments. By many accounts, it was decisive in the selection of Canberra as the site in 1908 as was a result of survey work done by the government surveyor Charles Scrivener.^[73] The NSW government ceded the district to the federal government in 1911 and the Federal Capital Territory was established.^[69]

An international design competition was launched by the Department of Home Affairs on 30 April 1911, closing on 31 January 1912. The competition was boycotted by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Institution of Civil Engineers and their affiliated bodies throughout the British Empire because the Minister for Home Affairs King O'Malley insisted that the final decision was for him to make rather than an expert in city planning.^[74] A total of 137 valid entries were received. O'Malley appointed a three-member board to advise him but they could not reach unanimity. On 24 May 1911,^[75] O'Malley came down on the side of the majority of the board with the design by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin of Chicago, Illinois, United States, being declared the winner.^[76][77] Second was Eliel Saarinen of Finland and third was Alfred Agache of Brazil but resident in Paris, France.^[74] O'Malley then appointed a six-member board to advise him on the implementation of the winning design. On 25 November 1912, the board advised that it could not support the Griffins' plan in its entirety and suggested an alternative plan of its own devising. This plan ostensibly incorporated the best features of the three place-getting designs as well as of a fourth design by H. Caswell, R.C.G. Coulter and W. Scott-Griffiths of Sydney, the rights to which it had purchased. It was this composite plan that was endorsed by Parliament and given formal approval by O'Malley on 10 January 1913.^[74] However, it was the Griffin plan which was ultimately proceeded with. In 1913, Walter Burley Griffin was appointed Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction and construction began.^[78] On 23 February, King O'Malley drove the first peg in the construction of the future capital city.

In 1912, the government invited suggestions from the public as to the name of the future city. Almost 750 names were suggested. At midday on 12 March 1913,^[79][80] Lady Denman, the wife of Governor-General Lord Denman, announced that the city would be named "Canberra" at a ceremony at Kurrajong Hill,^[81][82][83] which has since become Capital Hill and the site of the present Parliament House.^[84] Canberra Day is a public holiday observed in the ACT on the second Monday in March to celebrate the founding of Canberra.^[68] After the ceremony, bureaucratic disputes hindered Griffin's work;^[85] a Royal Commission in 1916 ruled his authority had been usurped by certain officials and his original plan was reinstated.^[86] Griffin's relationship with the Australian authorities was strained and a lack of funding meant that by the time he was fired in 1920, little work had been done.^[87][88] By this time, Griffin had revised his plan, overseen the earthworks of major avenues and established the Glenloch Cork Plantation.^[89][90]

The Commonwealth government purchased the pastoral property of Yarralumla in 1913 to provide an official residence for the Governor-General of Australia in the new capital.^[91] Renovations began in 1925 to enlarge and modernise the property.^[92] In 1927, the property was officially dubbed Government House.^[91] On 9 May that year, the Commonwealth parliament moved to Canberra with the opening of the Provisional Parliament House.^[93][94] The Prime Minister Stanley Bruce had officially taken up residence in The Lodge a few days earlier.^[95][96] Planned development of the city slowed significantly during the depression of the 1930s and during World War II.^[97] Some projects planned for that time, including Roman Catholic and Anglican cathedrals, were never completed.^[98] (Nevertheless, in 1973 the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Christopher was remodelled into St Christopher's Cathedral, Manuka, serving the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. It is the only cathedral in Canberra.^[99])

From 1920 to 1957, three bodies — successively the Federal Capital Advisory Committee,^[100] the Federal Capital Commission,^[101] and the National Capital Planning and Development Committee — continued to plan the further expansion of Canberra in the absence of Griffin. However, they were only advisory and development decisions were made without consulting them, which increased inefficiency.^[89][102]

The largest event in Canberra up to World War II was the 24th Meeting of ANZAAS in January 1939. The Canberra Times described it as "a signal event ... in the history of this, the world's youngest capital city". The city's accommodation was not nearly sufficient to house the 1,250 delegates and a tent city had to be set up on the banks of the Molonglo River. One of the prominent speakers was H. G. Wells, who was a guest of the Governor-General Lord Gowrie for a week. This event coincided with a heatwave across south-eastern Australia during which the temperature in Canberra reached 108.5 degrees Fahrenheit (42.5 Celsius) on 11 January. On Friday, 13 January, the Black Friday bushfires caused 71 deaths in Victoria and Wells accompanied the Governor-General on his tour of areas threatened by fires.^[103]

Immediately after the end of the war, Canberra was criticised for resembling a village and its disorganised collection of buildings was deemed ugly.^{[104][105][106]} Canberra was often derisively described as "several suburbs in search of a city".^[107] Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies regarded the state of the national capital as an embarrassment.^[108] Over time his attitude changed from one of contempt to that of championing its development. He fired two ministers charged with the development of the city for poor performance. Menzies remained in office for over a decade and in that time the development of the capital sped up rapidly.^[109][110] The population grew by more than 50 per cent in every five-year period from 1955 to 1975.^[110] Several Government departments, together with public servants, were moved to Canberra from Melbourne following the war.^[111] Government housing projects were undertaken to accommodate the city's growing population.^[112]

The National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) formed in 1957 with executive powers and ended four decades of disputes over the shape and design of Lake Burley Griffin — the centrepiece of Griffin's design — and construction was completed in 1964 after four years of work.^[113] The completion of the lake finally laid the platform for the development of Griffin's Parliamentary Triangle.^[114] Since the initial construction of the lake, various buildings of national importance have been constructed on its shores.^[115]

The newly built Australian National University was expanded and sculptures as well as monuments were built.^[115][116] A new National Library was constructed within the Parliamentary Triangle, followed by the High Court and the National Gallery.^[58][117] Suburbs in Canberra Central (often referred to as North Canberra and South Canberra) were further developed in the 1950s and urban development in the districts of Woden Valley and Belconnen commenced in the mid and late 1960s respectively, followed by the district of Tuggeranong in the mid-1970s.^{[118][119][120]} Many of the new suburbs were named after Australian politicians such as Barton, Deakin, Reid, Braddon, Curtin, Chifley and Parkes.^[121]

On 9 May 1988, a larger and permanent Parliament House was opened on Capital Hill as part of Australia's bicentenary celebrations.^[122][117] The Commonwealth Parliament moved there from the Provisional Parliament House, now known as Old Parliament House.^[122]

In December 1988, the Australian Capital Territory was granted full self-government by the Commonwealth Parliament, a step proposed as early as 1965.^[123] Following the first election on 4 March 1989,^[124] a 17-member Legislative Assembly sat at temporary offices at 1 Constitution Avenue, Civic, on 11 May 1989.^[125][126] Permanent premises were opened on London Circuit in 1994.^[126] The Australian Labor Party formed the ACT's first government, led by the Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, who made history as Australia's first female head of government.^[127][128] The 1990s also saw urban development begin in the district of Gungahlin in the far north of the ACT.^[129][130]

Parts of Canberra were engulfed by bushfires on 18 January 2003 that killed four people, injured 435 and destroyed more than 500 homes as well as the major research telescopes of Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory.^[131]

Throughout 2013, several events celebrated the 100th anniversary of the naming of Canberra.^[132] On 11 March 2014, the last day of the centennial year, the Canberra Centenary Column was unveiled in City Hill. Other works included The Skywhale, a hot air balloon designed by the sculptor Patricia Piccinini,^[133] and StellrScope by visual media artist Eleanor Gates-Stuart.^[134] On 7 February 2021, The Skywhale was joined by Skywhalepapa to create a Skywhale family, an event marked by Skywhale-themed pastries and beer produced by local companies as well as an art pop song entitled "We are the Skywhales".^[135]

In 2014, Canberra was named the best city to live in the world by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,^[17] and was named the third best city to visit in the world by Lonely Planet in 2017.^[20][21]

Canberra covers an area of 814.2 km² (314.4 sq mi)^[10] and is located near the Brindabella Ranges (part of the Australian Alps), approximately 150 km (93 mi) inland from Australia's east coast. It has an elevation of approximately 580 m (1,900 ft) AHD;^[136] the highest point is Mount Majura at 888 m (2,913 ft).^[137][138] Other low mountains include Mount Taylor 855 m (2,805 ft),^[139] Mount Ainslie 843 m (2,766 ft),^[140] Mount Mugga Mugga 812 m (2,664 ft)^[141] and Black Mountain 812 m (2,664 ft).^[142][143]

The native forest in the Canberra region was almost wholly eucalypt species and provided a resource for fuel and domestic purposes. By the early 1960s, logging had depleted the eucalypt, and concern about water quality led to the forests being closed. Interest in forestry began in 1915 with trials of a number of species including Pinus radiata on the slopes of Mount Stromlo. Since then, plantations have been expanded, with the benefit of reducing erosion in the Cotter catchment, and the forests are also popular recreation areas.^[144]

The urban environs of the city of Canberra straddle the Ginninderra plain, Molonglo plain, the Limestone plain, and the Tuggeranong plain (Isabella's Plain).^[145] The Molonglo River which flows across the Molonglo plain has been dammed to form the national capital's iconic feature Lake Burley Griffin.^[146] 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.^[145]

A number of creeks, including Jerrabomberra and Yarralumla Creeks, flow into the Molonglo and Murrumbidgee.^[145] Two of these creeks, the Ginninderra and Tuggeranong, have similarly been dammed to form Lakes Ginninderra and Tuggeranong.^{[147][148][149]} Until recently the Molonglo River had a history of sometimes calamitous floods; the area was a flood plain prior to the filling of Lake Burley Griffin.^[150][151]

Under the Köppen-Geiger classification, Canberra has an oceanic climate (Cfb).^[152] In January, the warmest month, the average high is approximately 29 °C (84 °F); in July, the coldest month, the average high drops to approximately 12 °C (54 °F).

Frost is common in the winter months. Snow is rare in the CBD (central business district) due to being on the leeward (eastern) side of the dividing range, but the surrounding areas get annual snowfall through winter and often the snow-capped Brindabella Range can be seen from the CBD. The last significant snowfall in the city centre was in 1968.^[136] Canberra is often affected by foehn winds, especially in winter and spring, evident by its anomalously warm maxima relative to altitude.

The highest recorded maximum temperature was 44.0 °C (111.2 °F) on 4 January 2020.^[153] Winter 2011 was Canberra's warmest winter on record, approximately 2 °C (4 °F) above the average temperature.^[154]

The lowest recorded minimum temperature was −10.0 °C (14.0 °F) on the morning of 11 July 1971.^[136] Light snow falls only once in every few years, and is usually not widespread and quickly dissipates.^[136]

Canberra is protected from the west by the Brindabellas which create a strong rain shadow in Canberra's valleys.^[136] Canberra gets 100.4 clear days annually.^[155] Annual rainfall is the third lowest of the capital cities (after Adelaide and Hobart)^[156] and is spread fairly evenly over the seasons, with late spring bringing the highest rainfall.^[157] Thunderstorms occur mostly between October and April,^[136] owing to the effect of summer and the mountains.

The area is generally sheltered from a westerly wind, though strong northwesterlies can develop. A cool, vigorous afternoon easterly change, colloquially referred to as a 'sea-breeze' or the 'Braidwood Butcher',^[158][159] is common during the summer months^[160] and often exceeds 40 km/h in the city. Canberra is also less humid than the nearby coastal areas.^[136]

Canberra was severely affected by smoke haze during the 2019/2020 bushfires. On 1 January 2020, Canberra had the worst air quality of any major city in the world, with an AQI of 7700 (USAQI 949).^[161]

Canberra is a planned city and the inner-city area was originally designed by Walter Burley Griffin, a major 20th-century American architect.^[165] Within the central area of the city near Lake Burley Griffin, major roads follow a wheel-and-spoke pattern rather than a grid.^[166] Griffin's proposal had an abundance of geometric patterns, including concentric hexagonal and octagonal streets emanating from several radii.^[166] However, the outer areas of the city, built later, are not laid out geometrically.^[167]

Lake Burley Griffin was deliberately designed so that the orientation of the components was related to various topographical landmarks in Canberra.^[168][169] The lakes stretch from east to west and divided the city in two; a land axis perpendicular to the central basin stretches from Capital Hill—the eventual location of the new Parliament House on a mound on the southern side—north northeast across the central basin to the northern banks along Anzac Parade to the Australian War Memorial.^[105] This was designed so that looking from Capital Hill, the War Memorial stood directly at the foot of Mount Ainslie. At the southwestern end of the land axis was Bimberi Peak,^[169] the highest mountain in the ACT, approximately 52 km (32 mi) south west of Canberra.^[143]

The straight edge of the circular segment that formed the central basin of Lake Burley Griffin was perpendicular to the land axis and designated the water axis, and it extended northwest towards Black Mountain.^[169] A line parallel to the water axis, on the northern side of the city, was designated the municipal axis.^[170] The municipal axis became the location of Constitution Avenue, which links City Hill in Civic Centre and both Market Centre and the Defence precinct on Russell Hill. Commonwealth Avenue and Kings Avenue were to run from the southern side from Capital Hill to City Hill and Market Centre on the north respectively, and they formed the western and eastern edges of the central basin. The area enclosed by the three avenues was known as the Parliamentary Triangle, and formed the centrepiece of Griffin's work.^[169][170]

The Griffins assigned spiritual values to Mount Ainslie, Black Mountain, and Red Hill and originally planned to cover each of these in flowers. That way each hill would be covered with a single, primary colour which represented its spiritual value.^[171] This part of their plan never came to fruition, as World War I slowed construction and planning disputes led to Griffin's dismissal by Prime Minister Billy Hughes after the war ended.^{[87][88][172]}

The urban areas of Canberra are organised into a hierarchy of districts, town centres, group centres, local suburbs as well as other industrial areas and villages. There are seven residential districts, each of which is divided into smaller suburbs, and most of which have a town centre which is the focus of commercial and social activities.^[173] The districts were settled in the following chronological order:

• Canberra Central, mostly settled in the 1920s and 1930s, with expansion up to the 1960s,^[174] 25 suburbs
• Woden Valley, first settled in 1964,^[119] 12 suburbs
• Belconnen, first settled in 1966,^[119] 27 suburbs (2 not yet developed)
• Weston Creek, settled in 1969, 8 suburbs^[175]
• Tuggeranong, settled in 1974,^[176] 18 suburbs
• Gungahlin, settled in the early 1990s, 18 suburbs (3 not yet developed)
• Molonglo Valley, development began in 2010, 13 suburbs planned.

The Canberra Central district is substantially based on Walter Burley Griffin's designs.^{[169][170][177]} In 1967 the then National Capital Development Commission adopted the "Y Plan" which laid out future urban development in Canberra around a series of central shopping and commercial area known as the 'town centres' linked by freeways, the layout of which roughly resembled the shape of the letter Y,^[178] with Tuggeranong at the base of the Y and Belconnen and Gungahlin located at the ends of the arms of the Y.^[178]

Development in Canberra has been closely regulated by government,^[179][180] both through planning processes and the use of crown lease terms that have tightly limited the use of parcels of land. Land in the ACT is held on 99-year crown leases from the national government, although most leases are now administered by the Territory government.^[181] There have been persistent calls for constraints on development to be liberalised,^[180] but also voices in support of planning consistent with the original 'bush capital' and 'urban forest' ideals that underpin Canberra's design.^[182]

Many of Canberra's suburbs are named after former Prime Ministers, famous Australians, early settlers, or use Aboriginal words for their title.^[183] Street names typically follow a particular theme; for example, the streets of Duffy are named after Australian dams and reservoirs, the streets of Dunlop are named after Australian inventions, inventors and artists and the streets of Page are named after biologists and naturalists.^[183] Most diplomatic missions are located in the suburbs of Yarralumla, Deakin, and O'Malley.^[184] There are three light industrial areas: the suburbs of Fyshwick, Mitchell, and Hume.^[185]

 

Panorama of Canberra and Lake Burley Griffin set against the backdrop of distant New South Wales, taken from the Telstra Tower

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Points of Interest Looking South from Mount Ainslie 1 War Memorial 2 Anzac Parade 3 Old Parliament House 4 New Parliament House 5 National Gallery 6 High Court 7 Questacon 8 National Library 9 Edmund Barton Building 10 Brindabella Ranges 11 Lovett Tower 12 Ben Chifley Building 13 Lake Burley Griffin 14 Limestone Avenue 15 Fairbairn Avenue 16 Parkes Way 17 R G Casey Building 18 John Gorton Building 19 King Edward Terrace 20 Presbyterian Church of Saint Andrew 21 St John's Anglican Church

The average Canberran was responsible for 13.7 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2005.^[187] In 2012, the ACT Government legislated greenhouse gas targets to reduce its emissions by 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, 80 per cent by 2050, with no net emissions by 2060.^[188] The government announced in 2013 a target for 90% of electricity consumed in the ACT to be supplied from renewable sources by 2020,^[189] and in 2016 set an ambitious target of 100% by 2020.^[190][191]

In 1996, Canberra became the first city in the world to set a vision of no waste, proposing an ambitious target of 2010 for completion.^[192] The strategy aimed to achieve a waste-free society by 2010, through the combined efforts of industry, government and community.^[193] By early 2010, it was apparent that though it had reduced waste going to landfill, the ACT initiative's original 2010 target for absolutely zero landfill waste would be delayed or revised to meet the reality.^[194][195]

Plastic bags made of polyethylene polymer with a thickness of less than 35 μm were banned from retail distribution in the ACT from November 2011.^{[196][197][198]} The ban was introduced by the ACT Government in an effort to make Canberra more sustainable.^[197]

Of all waste produced in the ACT, 75 per cent is recycled.^[199] Average household food waste in the ACT remains above the Australian average, costing an average $641 per household per annum.^[200]

Canberra's annual Floriade festival features a large display of flowers every Spring in Commonwealth Park. The organisers of the event have a strong environmental standpoint, promoting and using green energy, "green catering", sustainable paper, the conservation and saving of water.^[186] The event is also smoke-free.^[186]

There is no local council or city government for the city of Canberra. The Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly performs the roles of both a city council for the city and a territory government for the rest of the Australian Capital Territory.^[126] However, the vast majority of the population of the Territory reside in Canberra and the city is therefore the primary focus of the ACT Government.

The assembly consists of 25 members elected from five districts using proportional representation. The five districts are Brindabella, Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi, which each elect five members.^[201] The Chief Minister is elected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and selects colleagues to serve as ministers alongside him or her in the Executive, known informally as the cabinet.^[126]

Whereas the ACT has federally been dominated by Labor,^[202][203] the Liberals have been able to gain some footing in the ACT Legislative Assembly and were in government during a period of 6+1⁄2 years from 1995 and 2001. Labor took back control of the Assembly in 2001.^[127] At the 2004 election, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and the Labor Party won 9 of the 17 seats allowing them to form the ACT's first majority government.^[127] Since 2008, the ACT has been governed by a coalition of Labor and the Greens.^{[127][204][205]} As of 2022^[update], the Chief Minister was Andrew Barr from the Australian Labor Party.

The Australian federal government retains some influence over the ACT government. In the administrative sphere, most frequently this is through the actions of the National Capital Authority which is responsible for planning and development in areas of Canberra which are considered to be of national importance or which are central to Griffin's plan for the city,^[206] such as the Parliamentary Triangle, Lake Burley Griffin, major approach and processional roads, areas where the Commonwealth retains ownership of the land or undeveloped hills and ridge-lines (which form part of the Canberra Nature Park).^{[206][207][208]} The national government also retains a level of control over the Territory Assembly through the provisions of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988.^[209] This federal act defines the legislative power of the ACT assembly.^[210]

The ACT was given its first federal parliamentary representation in 1949 when it gained a seat in the House of Representatives, the Division of Australian Capital Territory.^[211][212] However, until 1966, the ACT member could only vote on matters directly affecting the territory and did not count for purposes of forming government.^[212] In 1974, the ACT was allocated two Senate seats and the House of Representatives seat was divided into two.^[211] A third was created in 1996, but was abolished in 1998 because of changes to the regional demographic distribution.^[202] At the 2019 election, the third seat has been reintroduced as the Division of Bean.

The House of Representatives seats have mostly been held by Labor and usually by comfortable margins.^[202][203] The Labor Party has polled at least seven percentage points more than the Liberal Party at every federal election since 1990 and their average lead since then has been 15 percentage points.^[127] The ALP and the Liberal Party held one Senate seat each until the 2022 election when Independent candidate David Pocock unseated the Liberal candidate Zed Seselja.^[213]

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) provides all of the constabulary services in the territory in a manner similar to state police forces, under a contractual agreement with the ACT Government.^[214] The AFP does so through its community policing arm ACT Policing.^[215]

People who have been charged with offences are tried either in the ACT Magistrates Court or, for more severe offences, the ACT Supreme Court.^[216] Prior to its closure in 2009, prisoners were held in remand at the Belconnen Remand Centre in the ACT but usually imprisoned in New South Wales.^[217] The Alexander Maconochie Centre was officially opened on 11 September 2008 by then Chief Minister Jon Stanhope. The total cost for construction was $130 million.^[218] The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal deal with minor civil law actions and other various legal matters.^[219][220]

Canberra has the lowest rate of crime of any capital city in Australia as of 2019^[update].^[221] As of 2016^[update], the most common crimes in the ACT were property related crimes, unlawful entry with intent and motor vehicle theft. They affected 2,304 and 966 people (580 and 243 per 100,000 persons respectively). Homicide and related offences—murder, attempted murder and manslaughter, but excluding driving causing death and conspiracy to murder—affect 1.0 per 100,000 persons, which is below the national average of 1.9 per 100,000. Rates of sexual assault (64.4 per 100,000 persons) are also below the national average (98.5 per 100,000).^{[222][223][224]} However the 2017 crime statistics showed a rise in some types of personal crime, notably burglaries, thefts and assaults.

In February 2020, the unemployment rate in Canberra was 2.9% which was lower than the national unemployment rate of 5.1%.^[225] As a result of low unemployment and substantial levels of public sector and commercial employment, Canberra has the highest average level of disposable income of any Australian capital city.^[226] The gross average weekly wage in Canberra is $1827 compared with the national average of $1658 (November 2019).^[227]

The median house price in Canberra as of February 2020 was $745,000, lower than only Sydney among capital cities of more than 100,000 people, having surpassed Melbourne and Perth since 2005.^{[227][228][229]} The median weekly rent paid by Canberra residents is higher than rents in all other states and territories.^[230] As of January 2014 the median unit rent in Canberra was $410 per week and median housing rent was $460, making the city the third most expensive in the country.^[231] Factors contributing to this higher weekly rental market include; higher average weekly incomes, restricted land supply,^[232] and inflationary clauses in the ACT Residential Tenancies Act.^[233]

The city's main industry is public administration and safety, which accounted for 27.1% of Gross Territory Product in 2018-19 and employed 32.49% of Canberra's workforce.^[234][22] The headquarters of many Australian Public Service agencies are located in Canberra, and Canberra is also host to several Australian Defence Force establishments, most notably the Australian Defence Force headquarters and HMAS Harman, which is a naval communications centre that is being converted into a tri-service, multi-user depot.^[235] Other major sectors by employment include Health Care (10.54%), Professional Services (9.77%), Education and Training (9.64%), Retail (7.27%), Accommodation & Food (6.39%) and Construction (5.80%).

^[22]

The former RAAF Fairbairn, adjacent to the Canberra Airport was sold to the operators of the airport,^[236] but the base continues to be used for RAAF VIP flights.^[237][238] A growing number of software vendors have based themselves in Canberra, to capitalise on the concentration of government customers; these include Tower Software and RuleBurst.^[239][240] A consortium of private and government investors is making plans for a billion-dollar data hub, with the aim of making Canberra a leading centre of such activity in the Asia-Pacific region.^[241] A Canberra Cyber Security Innovation Node was established in 2019 to grow the ACT's cyber security sector and related space, defence and education industries.^[242]

At the 2021 census, the population of Canberra was 453,558,^[243] up from 395,790 at the 2016 census,^[244] and 355,596 at the 2011 census.^[245] Canberra has been the fastest-growing city in Australia in recent years, having grown 23.3% from 2011 to 2021.^[243]

Canberrans are relatively young, highly mobile and well educated. The median age is 35 years and only 12.7% of the population is aged over 65 years.^[244] Between 1996 and 2001, 61.9% of the population either moved to or from Canberra, which was the second highest mobility rate of any Australian capital city.^[246] A 2024 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that 49% of ACT residents aged 15–74 held a bachelor's degree or higher, the highest proportion among all Australian states and territories.^[247]

According to statistics collected by the National Australia Bank and reported in The Canberra Times, Canberrans on average give significantly more money to charity than Australians in other states and territories, for both dollar giving and as a proportion of income.^[248]

At the 2016 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:^{[N 2][23]}

The 2021 census showed that 28.7% of Canberra's inhabitants were born overseas.^[23] Of inhabitants born outside Australia, the most prevalent countries of birth were India, England, China and Nepal.^[250]

2.0% of the population, or 8,949 people, identified as Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) in 2021. This was an increase from 6,508 counted in 2016, and lower than the Australian percentage of 3.2% in 2021.^{[N 5][23]}

At the 2021 census, 71.3% of people spoke only English at home, down from 72.7% in 2016. The other languages most commonly spoken at home were Mandarin (3.2%), Nepali (1.3%), Vietnamese (1.1%), Punjabi (1.1%) and Hindi (1.0%).^[23]

In 2021, the main religious affiliation in the ACT was Christianity (38.1%). This proportion has decreased over time as people reporting non-Christian religions and no religious affiliation have increased. The most common religions were Hinduism (4.5%), Islam (3.2%) and Buddhism (2.8%). 44.2% described themselves as having no religion.^[244]

The two main tertiary institutions are the Australian National University (ANU) in Acton and the University of Canberra (UC) in Bruce, with over 10,500 and 8,000 full-time-equivalent students respectively.^[251][252] Established in 1946,^[253] the ANU has always had a strong research focus and is ranked among the leading universities in the world and the best in Australia by The Times Higher Education Supplement and the Shanghai Jiao Tong World University Rankings.^[252][254] There are two religious university campuses in Canberra: Signadou in the northern suburb of Watson is a campus of the Australian Catholic University;^[255] St Mark's Theological College in Barton is part of the secular Charles Sturt University.^[256] The ACT Government announced on 5 March 2020 that the CIT campus and an adjoining carpark in Reid would be leased to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) for a peppercorn lease, for it to develop as a campus for a new UNSW Canberra.^[257] UNSW released a master plan in 2021 for a 6,000 student campus to be realised over 15 years at a cost of $1 billion.^[258]

The Australian Defence College has two campuses: the Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC) plus the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS) at Weston, and the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) beside the Royal Military College, Duntroon located in the inner-northern suburb of Campbell.^[259][260] ADFA teaches military undergraduates and postgraduates and includes UNSW@ADFA, a campus of the University of New South Wales;^[261][262] Duntroon provides Australian Army officer training.^[263]

Tertiary level vocational education is also available through the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), with campuses in Bruce, Reid, Gungahlin, Tuggeranong and Fyshwick.^[264] The combined enrolment of the CIT campuses was over 28,000 students in 2019.^[265] Following the transfer of land in Reid for the new UNSW Canberra, a new CIT Woden is scheduled to be completed by 2025.^[266]

In 2016 there were 132 schools in Canberra; 87 were operated by the government and 45 were private.^[267] During 2006, the ACT Government announced closures of up to 39 schools, to take effect from the end of the school year, and after a series of consultations unveiled its Towards 2020: Renewing Our Schools policy.^[268] As a result, some schools closed during the 2006–08 period, while others were merged; the creation of combined primary and secondary government schools was to proceed over a decade. The closure of schools provoked significant opposition.^{[269][270][271]} Most suburbs were planned to include a primary and a nearby preschool; these were usually located near open areas where recreational and sporting activities were easily available.^[272] Canberra also has the highest percentage of non-government (private) school students in Australia, accounting for 40.6 per cent of ACT enrollments.^[273]

Canberra is home to many national monuments and institutions such as the Australian War Memorial, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library,^[177] the National Archives,^[274] the Australian Academy of Science,^[275] the National Film & Sound Archive and the National Museum.^[177] Many Commonwealth government buildings in Canberra are open to the public, including Parliament House, the High Court and the Royal Australian Mint.^{[276][277][278]}

Lake Burley Griffin is the site of the Captain James Cook Memorial and the National Carillon.^[177] Other sites of interest include the Australian–American Memorial, Commonwealth Park, Commonwealth Place, the Telstra Tower, the Australian National Botanic Gardens, the National Zoo and Aquarium, the National Dinosaur Museum, and Questacon – the National Science and Technology Centre.^[177][279]

The Canberra Museum and Gallery in the city is a repository of local history and art, housing a permanent collection and visiting exhibitions.^[280] Several historic homes are open to the public: Lanyon and Tuggeranong Homesteads in the Tuggeranong Valley,^[281][282] Mugga-Mugga in Symonston,^[283] and Blundells' Cottage in Parkes all display the lifestyle of the early European settlers.^[41] Calthorpes' House in Red Hill is a well-preserved example of a 1920s house from Canberra's very early days.^[284] Strathnairn Homestead is an historic building which also dates from the 1920s.

Canberra has many venues for live music and theatre: the Canberra Theatre and Playhouse which hosts many major concerts and productions;^[285] and Llewellyn Hall (within the ANU School of Music), a world-class concert hall are two of the most notable.^[286] The Street Theatre is a venue with less mainstream offerings.^[286] The Albert Hall was the city's first performing arts venue, opened in 1928. It was the original performance venue for theatre groups such as the Canberra Repertory Society.^[287]

Stonefest was a large annual festival, for some years one of the biggest festivals in Canberra.^[288][289] It was downsized and rebranded as Stone Day in 2012.^[290] There are numerous bars and nightclubs which also offer live entertainment, particularly concentrated in the areas of Dickson, Kingston and the city.^[291] Most town centres have facilities for a community theatre and a cinema, and they all have a library.^[292] Popular cultural events include the National Folk Festival, the Royal Canberra Show, the Summernats car festival, Enlighten festival, the National Multicultural Festival in February and the Celebrate Canberra festival held over 10 days in March in conjunction with Canberra Day.^[293]

Canberra maintains sister-city relationships with both Nara, Japan and Beijing, China. Canberra has friendship-city relationships with both Dili, East Timor and Hangzhou, China.^[294] City-to-city relationships encourage communities and special interest groups both locally and abroad to engage in a wide range of exchange activities. The Canberra Nara Candle Festival held annually in spring, is a community celebration of the Canberra Nara Sister City relationship.^[295] The festival is held in Canberra Nara Park on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.^[296]

The history of Canberra was told in the 1938 radio feature Canberra the Great.

As Australia's capital, Canberra is the most important centre for much of Australia's political reportage and thus all the major media, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the commercial television networks, and the metropolitan newspapers maintain local bureaus. News organisations are represented in the press gallery, a group of journalists who report on the national parliament. The National Press Club of Australia in Barton has regular television broadcasts of its lunches at which a prominent guest, typically a politician or other public figure, delivers a speech followed by a question-and-answer session.^[297]

Canberra has a daily newspaper, The Canberra Times, which was established in 1926.^[298][299] There are also several free weekly publications, including news magazines CityNews and Canberra Weekly as well as entertainment guide BMA Magazine. BMA Magazine first went to print in 1992; the inaugural edition featured coverage of the Nirvana Nevermind tour.^[300]

There are a number of AM and FM stations broadcasting in Canberra (AM/FM Listing). The main commercial operators are the Capital Radio Network (2CA and 2CC), and Austereo/ARN (104.7 and Mix 106.3). There are also several community operated stations.
A DAB+ digital radio trial is also in operation, it simulcasts some of the AM/FM stations, and also provides several digital only stations (DAB+ Trial Listing).

Five free-to-air television stations service Canberra:

• ABC Canberra (ABC)
• SBS New South Wales (SBS)
• Network 10 Southern NSW & ACT (CTC) – Network 10 owned and operated station
• Seven Network Southern NSW & ACT (CBN) – Seven Network owned and operated station
• WIN Television Southern NSW & ACT (WIN) – Nine Network affiliate

Each station broadcasts a primary channel and several multichannels. Of the three main commercial networks:

• WIN airs a half-hour local WIN News each weeknight at 6pm, produced from a newsroom in the city and broadcast from studios in Wollongong.
• Network 10 airs short local news updates throughout the day, produced and broadcast from its Hobart studios. It previously aired a regional edition of Nine News from Sydney each weeknight at 6pm, featuring opt-outs for Canberra and the ACT when it was a Nine affiliate.
• Seven airs short local news and weather updates throughout the day, produced and broadcast from its Canberra studios.

Prior to 1989, Canberra was serviced by just the ABC, SBS and Capital Television (CTC), which later became Ten Capital in 1994 then Southern Cross Ten in 2002 then Channel 9/Southern Cross Nine in 2016 and finally Channel 10 in 2021, with Prime Television (now Prime7) and WIN Television arriving as part of the Government's regional aggregation program in that year.^[301]

Pay television services are available from Foxtel (via satellite) and telecommunications company TransACT (via cable).^[302]

In addition to local sporting leagues, Canberra has a number of sporting teams that compete in national and international competitions. The best known teams are the Canberra Raiders and the ACT Brumbies who play rugby league and rugby union respectively; both have been champions of their leagues.^[303][304] Both teams play their home games at Canberra Stadium,^[305] which is the city's largest stadium and was used to hold group matches in football for the 2000 Summer Olympics and in rugby union for the 2003 Rugby World Cup.^[306][307]

Canberra United represents the city in the A-League Women (formerly the W-League), the national women's soccer league and were champions in the 2011–12 season.^[308] A men's team is set to join the A-League Men in the 2026–27 season.

The city also has a successful basketball team, the Canberra Capitals, which has won seven out of the last eleven national women's basketball titles.^[309] The Canberra Vikings represent the city in the National Rugby Championship and finished second in the 2015 season.

There are also teams that participate in national competitions in netball, field hockey, ice hockey, cricket and baseball.

The historic Prime Minister's XI cricket match is played at Manuka Oval annually.^[310] Other significant annual sporting events include the Canberra Marathon^[311] and the City of Canberra Half Ironman Triathlon.

Canberra has been bidding for an Australian Football League club since 1981 when Australian rules in the Australian Capital Territory was more popular.^[312] While the league has knocked back numerous proposals, according to the AFL Canberra belongs to the Greater Western Sydney Giants^[313] who play three home games at Manuka Oval each season.

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is located in the Canberra suburb of Bruce.^[314] The AIS is a specialised educational and training institution providing coaching for elite junior and senior athletes in a number of sports. The AIS has been operating since 1981 and has achieved significant success in producing elite athletes, both local and international.^[314] The majority of Australia's team members and medallists at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney were AIS graduates.^[315]

Canberra has numerous sporting ovals, golf courses, skate parks, and swimming pools that are open to the public. Tennis courts include those at the National Sports Club, Lyneham, former home of the Canberra Women's Tennis Classic. A Canberra-wide series of bicycle paths are available to cyclists for recreational and sporting purposes. Canberra Nature Parks have a large range of walking paths, horse and mountain bike trails. Water sports like sailing, rowing, dragon boating and water skiing are held on Canberra's lakes.^[316][317] The Rally of Canberra is an annual motor sport event, and from 2000 to 2002, Canberra hosted the Canberra 400 event for V8 Supercars on the temporary Canberra Street Circuit, which was located inside the Parliamentary Triangle.

A popular form of exercise for people working near or in the Parliamentary Triangle is to do the "bridge to bridge walk/run" of about 5 km around Lake Burley Griffin, crossing the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and Kings Avenue Bridge, using the paths beside the lake. The walk takes about 1 hour, making it ideal for a lunchtime excursion. This is also popular on weekends. Such was the popularity during the COVID-19 isolation in 2020 that the ACT Government initiated a 'Clockwise is COVID-wise' rule for walkers and runners.^[318]

Canberra has two large public hospitals, the approximately 600-bed Canberra Hospital—formerly the Woden Valley Hospital—in Garran and the 250-bed North Canberra Hospital in Bruce.^[319][320] The latter was called Calvary Public Hospital Bruce before its acquisition by the ACT Government in 2023.^[321][322] Both are teaching institutions.^[320] The largest private hospital is the Calvary John James Hospital in Deakin.^[323][324] Calvary Bruce Private Hospital^[325] in Bruce and Healthscope's National Capital Private Hospital ^[326] in Garran are also major healthcare providers.

The Royal Canberra Hospital was located on Acton Peninsula on Lake Burley Griffin; it was closed in 1991 and was demolished in 1997 in a controversial and fatal implosion to facilitate construction of the National Museum of Australia.^{[115][170][177][327][328]} The city has 10 aged care facilities. Canberra's hospitals receive emergency cases from throughout southern New South Wales,^[329] and ACT Ambulance Service is one of four operational agencies of the ACT Emergency Services Authority.^[330] NETS provides a dedicated ambulance service for inter-hospital transport of sick newborns within the ACT and into surrounding New South Wales.^[331]

The automobile is by far the dominant form of transport in Canberra.^[332] The city is laid out so that arterial roads connecting inhabited clusters run through undeveloped areas of open land or forest, which results in a low population density;^[333] this also means that idle land is available for the development of future transport corridors if necessary without the need to build tunnels or acquire developed residential land. In contrast, other capital cities in Australia have substantially less green space.^[334]

Canberra's districts are generally connected by parkways—limited access dual carriageway roads^[332][335] with speed limits generally set at a maximum of 100 km/h (62 mph).^[336][337] An example is the Tuggeranong Parkway which links Canberra's CBD and Tuggeranong, and bypasses Weston Creek.^[338] In most districts, discrete residential suburbs are bounded by main arterial roads with only a few residential linking in, to deter non-local traffic from cutting through areas of housing.^[339]

In 1974 the National Capital Development Commission announced a shift in transport planning to prioritise public transport and discourage commuting by car.^[340]

The Commission's Transport Policy was a progressive, possibly radical, approach to transport planning for the time. Unwilling to accept the advice of a 1977 traffic study, the NCDC abandoned its commitment to expert-led planning, suppressed the modelling report and revived its car-oriented transport plans from the 1960s.^[341] This led to Canberra being a car-dominated city today. In 2006 Canberrans were the most likely of any Australian city dwellers to use their cars to get to work.^[342]

In an effort to improve road safety, traffic cameras were first introduced to Canberra by the Kate Carnell Government in 1999.^[343] The traffic cameras installed in Canberra include fixed red-light and speed cameras and point-to-point speed cameras; together they bring in revenue of approximately $11 million per year in fines.^[343]

ACTION, the government-operated bus service, provides public transport throughout the city.^[344] CDC Canberra provides bus services between Canberra and nearby areas of New South Wales of (Murrumbateman and Yass)^[345] and as Qcity Transit (Queanbeyan).^[346] A light rail line commenced service on 20 April 2019 linking the CBD with the northern district of Gungahlin.^[347] A planned Stage 2A of Canberra's light rail network will run from Alinga Street station to Commonwealth Park, adding three new stops at City West, City South and Commonwealth Park.^[348] In February 2021 ACT Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel said he expects construction on Stage 2A to commence in the 2021-22 financial year, and for "tracks to be laid" by the next Territory election in 2024.^[349] At the 2016 census, 7.1% of the journeys to work involved public transport, while 4.5% walked to work.^[244]

There are two local taxi companies. Aerial Capital Group enjoyed monopoly status until the arrival of Cabxpress in 2007.^[350] In October 2015 the ACT Government passed legislation to regulate ride sharing, allowing ride share services including Uber to operate legally in Canberra.^{[351][352][353]} The ACT Government was the first jurisdiction in Australia to enact legislation to regulate the service.^[354] Since then many other ride sharing and taxi services have started in ACT namely Ola, Glide Taxi^[355] and GoCatch^[356]

An interstate NSW TrainLink railway service connects Canberra to Sydney.^[357] Canberra railway station is in the inner south suburb of Kingston.^[358] Between 1920 and 1922 the train line crossed the Molonglo River and ran as far north as the city centre, although the line was closed following major flooding and was never rebuilt, while plans for a line to Yass were abandoned. A 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge construction railway was built in 1923 between the Yarralumla brickworks and the provisional Parliament House; it was later extended to Civic, but the whole line was closed in May 1927.^[359] Train services to Melbourne are provided by way of a NSW TrainLink bus service which connects with a rail service between Sydney and Melbourne in Yass, about a one-hour drive from Canberra.^[357][360]

Plans to establish a high-speed rail service between Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney,^[361] have not been implemented, as the various proposals have been deemed economically unviable.^[362][363] The original plans for Canberra included proposals for railed transport within the city,^[364] however none eventuated.^[364] The phase 2 report of the most recent proposal, the High Speed Rail Study, was published by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport on 11 April 2013.^[365] A railway connecting Canberra to Jervis Bay was also planned but never constructed.^[366]

Canberra is about three hours by road from Sydney on the Federal Highway (National Highway 23),^[367] which connects with the Hume Highway (National Highway 31) near Goulburn, and seven hours by road from Melbourne on the Barton Highway (National Highway 25), which joins the Hume Highway at Yass.^[367] It is a two-hour drive on the Monaro Highway (National Highway 23) to the ski fields of the Snowy Mountains and the Kosciuszko National Park.^[360] Batemans Bay, a popular holiday spot on the New South Wales coast, is also two hours away via the Kings Highway.^[360]

Interstate coach services operate on these roads, with three companies operating a Sydney-Canberra express route: Murrays, FlixBus, and Greyhound Australia.^[368] Other coach routes include: Murrays buses to Wollongong (via Moss Vale) and Narooma (via Batemans Bay); FlixBus buses to Melbourne (via Albury); V/Line buses to Wodonga (via Gundagai) and Bairnsdale and Traralgon (via Cooma); NSW TrainLink buses to Bombala and Eden (via Cooma), Wagga Wagga, Cootamundra and Goulburn; and CDC Canberra buses to Queanbeyan, Yass and Bungendore.^[369]

Canberra Airport provides direct domestic services to Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sunshine Coast and Sydney with connections to other domestic centres.^[370] There are also direct flights to small regional towns: Ballina, Dubbo, Newcastle and Port Macquarie in New South Wales. Canberra Airport is, as of September 2013, designated by the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development as a restricted use designated international airport.^[371] International flights have previously been operated by both Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways. Fiji Airways has announced direct flights to Nadi commencing in July 2023.^[372] Until 2003 the civilian airport shared runways with RAAF Base Fairbairn. In June of that year, the Air Force base was decommissioned and from that time the airport was fully under civilian control.^[373]

Canberra has one of the highest rates of active travel of all Australian major cities, with 7.1 per cent of commuters walking or cycling to work in 2011.^[374] An ACT Government survey conducted in late 2010 found that Canberrans walk an average of 26 minutes each day.^[375] According to The Canberra Times in March 2014, Canberra's cyclists are involved in an average of four reported collisions every week.^[376] The newspaper also reported that Canberra is home to 87,000 cyclists, translating to the highest cycling participation rate in Australia; and, with higher popularity, bike injury rates in 2012 were twice the national average.^[377]

Since late 2020, two scooter-sharing systems have been operational in Canberra: orange scooters from Neuron Mobility and purple scooters from Beam Mobility,^[378] both Singapore-based companies that operate in many Australian cities. These services cover much of Canberra Central and Central Belconnen, with plans to expand coverage to more areas of the city in 2022.^[379]

The government-owned Icon Water manages Canberra's water and sewerage infrastructure.^[381] ActewAGL is a joint venture between ACTEW and AGL, and is the retail provider of Canberra's utility services including water, natural gas, electricity, and also some telecommunications services via a subsidiary TransACT.^[382]

Canberra's water is stored in four reservoirs, the Corin, Bendora and Cotter dams on the Cotter River and the Googong Dam on the Queanbeyan River. Although the Googong Dam is located in New South Wales, it is managed by the ACT government.^[383] Icon Water owns Canberra's two wastewater treatment plants, located at Fyshwick and on the lower reaches of the Molonglo River.^[384][385]

Electricity for Canberra mainly comes from the national power grid through substations at Holt and Fyshwick (via Queanbeyan).^[386] Power was first supplied from the Kingston Powerhouse near the Molonglo River, a thermal plant built in 1913, but this was finally closed in 1957.^[387][388] The ACT has four solar farms, which were opened between 2014 and 2017: Royalla (rated output of 20 megawatts, 2014),^[389] Mount Majura (2.3 MW, 2016),^[380] Mugga Lane (13 MW, 2017)^[390] and Williamsdale (11 MW, 2017).^[391] In addition, numerous houses in Canberra have photovoltaic panels or solar hot water systems. In 2015 and 2016, rooftop solar systems supported by the ACT government's feed-in tariff had a capacity of 26.3 megawatts, producing 34,910 MWh. In the same year, retailer-supported schemes had a capacity of 25.2 megawatts and exported 28,815 MWh to the grid (power consumed locally was not recorded).^[392]

There are no wind-power generators in Canberra, but several have been built or are being built or planned in nearby New South Wales, such as the 140.7 megawatt Capital Wind Farm. The ACT government announced in 2013 that it was raising the target for electricity consumed in the ACT to be supplied from renewable sources to 90% by 2020,^[189] raising the target from 210 to 550 megawatts.^[393] It announced in February 2015 that three wind farms in Victoria and South Australia would supply 200 megawatts of capacity; these are expected to be operational by 2017.^[394] Contracts for the purchase of an additional 200 megawatts of power from two wind farms in South Australia and New South Wales were announced in December 2015 and March 2016.^[395][396] The ACT government announced in 2014 that up to 23 megawatts of feed-in-tariff entitlements would be made available for the establishment of a facility in the ACT or surrounding region for burning household and business waste to produce electricity by 2020.^[397]

The ACT has the highest rate with internet access at home (94 per cent of households in 2014–15).^[398]

Canberra has three sister cities:

• Beijing, China^[294]
• Nara, Japan^[294]
• Wellington, New Zealand^[399]

In addition, Canberra has the following friendship cities:

• Hangzhou, China: The ACT Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government on 29 October 1998. The Agreement was designed to promote business opportunities and cultural exchanges between the two cities.^[400]
• Dili, East Timor: The Canberra Dili Friendship Agreement was signed in 2004, aiming to build friendship and mutual respect and promote educational, cultural, economic, humanitarian and sporting links between Canberra and Dili.^[401]

• 1971 Canberra flood
• 2003 Canberra bushfires
• List of tallest buildings in Canberra
• List of public art in Canberra