7 things I love about living in Canberra, Australia
Hi there. My name is Gary and I live in the capital city of Australia, which is called Canberra. It was established in 1913 because Sydney and Melbourne had a dispute as to who should be the capital (prior to that, it was Melbourne). It now has a population of over 460,000.
I’ve seen this view myself quite a few times. It’s one of the best views of Canberra. That’s the Parliament House right in the middle (and the Old Parliament House right in front of it). The Australian War Memorial is right at the bottom and that’s Anzac Parade that goes from the memorial to Lake Burley Griffin (which is a man-made lake, named after the American architect who designed Canberra).
Like many others, I moved here because I was offered a job here. I have now lived here for 12 years. Things I love about Canberra:
1. It is a very well-educated and liberal city.
Canberra is a city that tends to attract a certain type of person. People usually move here to (a) work for the government, (b) study here, usually at either the Australian National University or at the Australian Defence Force Academy, or (c) to work in a private-sector job that involves dealing with the government (such companies include IT companies like Oracle, SAP, and IBM as well as KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PWC).
It is not a centre of industry and there are hardly any factories here. You either work for the government or you work in a job where you deal with public servants. This does mean that it’s a very clean city, in terms of pollution.
It’s also not a city full of anti-vaxxers who believe in crazy conspiracy theories. The official statistic (as of 2 June 2022) is that in the Australian Capital Territory (basically Canberra) 97.3% of the population aged over 5 has had at least 2 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. I believe this is one of the highest vaccination rates in the world (our national vaccination rate is slightly lower but still very high, although there are a lot of people who haven’t got their booster shot).
We did attract a lot of protestors a few months ago (called the Convoy to Canberra) but nearly all of those came from other parts of the country. I won’t go into that any further though (because I could a whole article about it). That being said, Canberrans are more inclined to protest about other things (such as refugees, climate change, LGBT rights, and women’s rights).
We also happen to have a gay Chief Minister (he was the first openly gay head of government in Australia). I don’t tend to dwell on this fact but it’s worth noting.
And yes, the rest of the country tends to hate us because they think of Canberra as “the government” (and the media does not help with this) but the rest of the country sends the politicians here. Very few of them are from Canberra.
2. The traffic is a breeze compared to other cities.
This is largely because Canberra was mostly built in the years following World War II, when the car was king. There was plenty of space and not much here before then. This means that we have a city that was built for cars.
And I’m not necessarily referring to Walter Burley Griffin’s designs from over 100 years ago (he was the American architect that designed Canberra) but I’m more referring to its design in the post-WW2 days.
Because it’s a car-dependent city with plenty of wide-open spaces, Americans and Canadians would probably feel at home in Canberra. Unfortunately, this does mean that it’s difficult to live here without a car, although I’ve met a surprisingly high number of people who do just that (it is possible to do — it’s just inconvenient at times).
3. It is a great place to live if you like the outdoors.
Canberra is unofficially known as “The Bush Capital” (Australians tend to call the wilderness “the bush”). If you like to go hiking, camping, or 4WDing, then it is a pretty decent place to live. Nowhere is far from the bush.
Even if you don’t like to go hiking, the are plenty of public spaces to have picnics and BBQs, there are plenty of nature reserves and dog parks and whatnot. It’s not just buildings everywhere like some cities are.
4. It has four distinct seasons.
People in other countries most likely imagine Australia to be warm all year round. And some parts of Australia are indeed like that. Although nowhere in Australia gets that cold compared to places like the northern USA, Canada, or Northern Europe.
Here is Canberra’s location, shown on a map of South-Eastern Australia:
As you can see, it’s an inland city. It’s about 2 hours from the South Coast and about 3 hours from the suburbs of Sydney. For that reason, the climate in Canberra is different from what it is like on the coast. Canberra tends to have hot summers and cold winters.
This may not sound like a selling point but what it does mean is that it has four distinct seasons. Summer feels like summer, autumn feels like autumn, winter feels like winter and spring feels like spring (whereas in some parts of Australia, you have half the year where it’s hot and humid and half the year whereas it’s… not as hot and humid).
5. Proximity to other places of interest.
People often like to sell Canberra by saying that it’s roughly: (a) 3 hours from Sydney, (b) 2 hours to the coast, and (c) 2.5 hours to the snow. And while it doesn’t say much about Canberra itself, they are correct. It may be far from where my family lives but it is relatively close to other places.
I mean, this is Australia, which is roughly the same size as the USA (if you remove Alaska and Hawaii) and it’s almost as big as Europe. And the entire population of Australia is less than that of Texas. So my point is that things tend to be far apart.
Also, within a few hours' drive, there are many nice towns worth visiting, as well as camping spots, hiking trails, or whatever interests you.
6. Amenities
Canberra isn’t an overly touristy city and will never compete with “real” cities (like Sydney, Melbourne, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, or Hong Kong) in terms of things to do and see. However, I don’t feel like it needs to. It can just be its own thing (as much as property developers may want to use names like “Manhattan on the Park” — yes, that’s an actual apartment building in the middle of Canberra).
Nothing against big cities but the appeal of Canberra is that isn’t like those places. Yet, like other cities, it does have its fair share of amenities. It has:
- tourist attractions such as the Australian War Memorial, the National Museum of Australia, Questacon, the Old Parliament House, the National Library of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Australian Mint
- several festivals throughout the year, such as Summernats (a national car festival), the National Multicultural Festival (food is a big part of it), the Enlighten Festival, and Floriade (a flower festival held in spring)
- many cafes, bars, pubs, clubs, and restaurants. If you like to go out to eat and drink, there are plenty of places to do that
- nightclubs, if those interest you
- strip clubs and brothels, if those interest you (yes, brothels are legal here)
7. Work-life balance
This may not apply to everybody in Canberra but most government jobs tend to offer a good work-life balance. This is one of the things I like most about my job. I go to work (on days where I’m in the office), I do what I’m paid to do, I go home, and then I spend the rest of the time doing whatever I feel like doing. And the commute isn’t that long either, because nowhere in Canberra is that far away (compared to bigger cities).
Conclusion
So in summary, it’s not a thriving metropolis but it is a decent place to live in many ways. Some people love it and some people hate it. The people who hate it tend to find it boring and “full of politicians and public servants” (it’s probably a lot like Ottawa, Canada, not that I’ve been there). And the people who love it often describe it as “a good place for families” (make of that what you will). But I think that it’s what you make of it, like anywhere really.
I may follow this up with a list of things I hate about living here. Yes, while it has its selling points, there also are a few legitimate criticisms I could make about Canberra. Thanks for reading.
