Rows over paid parking, a burgeoning hipster population and a 10-breasted mammal haunting the skies - how will today's Canberra look to residents in 100 years' time?
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A snapshot of life in the city, as well as a sense of its 100-year history, will form a time capsule that will soon be encased under a sculpture on City Hill, as part of a gift to the community from Canberra CBD Limited.
Chief executive of Canberra CBD Ltd Jane Easthope said the group was already in the process of collecting 100 unique objects and stories about Canberra past and present to include in the capsule, which will be housed in the base of the artwork.
The Canberra Centenary Column, an obelisk that is being created by artist Geoff Farquhar-Still, was inspired by the original foundation stone outside Old Parliament House, and would soon be placed on City Hill, a place that was central to the original plans for the city of Walter Burley Griffin.
Ms Easthope said the 100 objects in the capsule would range from the rare and fascinating to the everyday, to give residents of the future an idea of what life was like here in 2013.
''We've written to 77 organisations which are representative of the Canberra community … we've tried to cast that net as wide as we can,'' she said.
There will also be contributions from significant individuals, as well as 10 objects from the Centenary of Canberra team.
Ms Easthope said she would be thrilled if the Skywhale had a presence in the capsule.
''I'd love for a bit of fabric or even the original artist's drawings to go in there, but that's really up to the Centenary,'' she said.
The people and organisations involved have until the end of the week to present a proposal for what they would like to include, and Craft ACT, which is managing the project, will begin curating the items in the new year.
Craft ACT curator Anne Radimin said the project was looking for items and stories in three categories: Centenary of Canberra celebrations; the life and culture of Canberra since 1913; and people's stories about living here.
''It doesn't have to be an extensive story, because everything that we have now, no matter how mundane we think it is now, is going to be really interesting in the future,'' she said.
The capsule collection will go on show for a week in February to give everyone the chance to see it before it's locked away on the hill.
Many of the items, such as stories and DVDs, will also be stored in the ACT Heritage Library and the National Film and Sound Archive for posterity, but will be embargoed for the next 20 years.
''They are such a wonderful social history resource that you couldn't lock it away from the community for 100 years,'' Ms Easthope said.
What do you think should be in the time capsule? Leave your suggestions in the comments.
