By early Friday, she had already used the CBR hashtag on her Twitter account - which has almost 100,000 followers - and was happy to promote a city she loves.

''I've been away for a little while and coming back, it's amazing to see the growth in the city, it's just such a beautiful place,'' she said.

''I can't wait to move back here and be involved in the city.''

The Australian Opals and Canberra Capital star is recuperating on the south coast after knee and Achilles tendon surgery but plans to be back in the national capital within a fortnight to start her campaign for the world championships in Turkey in September.

She said initiatives such as brand Canberra were important for changing perceptions about the national capital.

''It is a very cool place to be, a very cool place to live. There's a lot of culture here and I think a lot of people who haven't visited Canberra haven't been able to see that side of it,'' she said.

Tourism Minister Andrew Barr said the Canberra Day festivities were a good time to highlight the national capital and the new brand CBR which was unveiled last November.

And he wanted to see people tweet or post a range of experiences over the weekend, from a backyard barbecue to the high-end Diner en Blanc. ''The hashtag CBR certainly allows us to engage with social media and one of the things we want this weekend is people just snapping their photos at the long weekend events around the city or just whatever they're doing to celebrate the city's birthday and share that. Our goal is to get CBR trending.''