People of the Australian Capital Territory

Population composition

The population has a higher proportion of young adults than the national average and a lower proportion from the older age groups. About one-fifth of the residents—slightly lower than the national average—were born outside of Australia, mainly in the United Kingdom. Some one-fifth of the population also speak a language other than English at home, the most common being Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Italian, Vietnamese, and Greek. About 1 percent of the population are Aborigines. Nearly half of the territory’s residents are Christian, the Roman Catholic and Anglican denominations together accounting for more than two-fifths of the population. The average household income in the territory is significantly higher than that for Australia as a whole, and a greater proportion of the population has completed postsecondary education. Within Canberra there is not a high level of segregation of the population by income or social class, but younger families with small children predominate in the newer suburbs.

The population of the territory grew rapidly during the 1960s and early ’70s, when government departments were transferred from Melbourne to Canberra and government employment was expanding rapidly. In subsequent years the growth rate fell to less than the national average. The main sources of population growth have been natural increase and in-migration from other parts of Australia, principally New South Wales and Victoria.

Settlement patterns

Virtually all of the residents of the Australian Capital Territory live in Canberra and its suburbs. Of the tiny remainder, some live in villages and rural areas and the rest at Jervis Bay, at an Aboriginal settlement at Wreck Bay, and at the Royal Australian Naval College. Just across the New South Wales border from Canberra, and part of the metropolitan area, is the city of Queanbeyan. Namadgi National Park is situated in the southern and western mountainous parts of the territory and adjoins the large Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. Including smaller nature parks in and around Canberra, Tidbinbilla and Jervis Bay nature reserves, and Namadgi, conservation areas cover roughly half of the area of the Australian Capital Territory.

Some one-fourth of the territory is occupied by rural holdings used predominantly for grazing sheep and cattle. About one-tenth of the land is urban, and roughly the same amount is used for plantation forestry and is planted mostly with Pinus radiata.

Canberra is a planned city in which market forces have operated within a framework set by planning decisions, although more recently the market component has become more influential. Planning has been effective, because the federal government purchased and subsequently retained ownership of all the land. Land is leased for private residential and commercial use, and its use is controlled by conditions specified in leases. The older parts of Canberra, on each side of Lake Burley Griffin, include the parliamentary triangle, the largest concentrations of government offices, and the main commercial centre of the city. The central parts of the city accord quite closely with the 1912 plan of American architect Walter Burley Griffin. The design takes advantage of the physical features of the site, the hills and the floodplain of the Molonglo River. Its focus is on the parliamentary triangle and the land axis from Mount Ainslie north of Lake Burley Griffin to Parliament House on Capital Hill to the south.

Each of the newer urban districts of Woden–Weston Creek, Belconnen, Tuggeranong, and Gungahlin includes residential suburbs, a major regional centre, and local service centres. These districts were developed according to modern town planning and urban design principles in order to provide services and job opportunities in each urban district close to where people live. This is a matter of some controversy; commercial interests have argued successfully for greater concentration of businesses in the city centre rather than in the surrounding districts.

The hills that separate the urban districts of Canberra and most of the foreshores of the ornamental lakes have been retained as open space. Partly as a result of this policy and partly in order to preserve options for future developments, the urban districts are separated by large open areas, and the city extends some 20 miles (30 km) from north to south.