There was a certain satisfaction when many locals in Canberra unfurled their new local map - an illustrated chart of Canberra's life and times by The Canberra Times' David Pope.
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Now in a new video, the award-winning cartoonist has revealed how penning the map was a journey through the layers of the city's past.
"I've circumnavigated the dark waters covering what was once the Molonglo river flood plain, of the old river crossings and sheep paths using the tracks of the Ngunnawal ancestors," Mr Pope said.
"[I] sketched some of the things around, below and above the lake, anchoring it with our own illustrated sea monster, the lord of this carp pond and his illusive muse floating above. And I realised the more you draw in the more you leave out."
But he has come to peace with the inevitable exclusions.
"I let the mysterious illustrated elements be placeholders for the unknown and forgotten, that multiple of other stories around these shores partially covers lives of the past," Mr Pope said.
Despite all of Canberra's grand boulevards and ceremonious institutions, Mr Pope said that it was the intimate rhythms of the capital's humans that inspired him most.
While he included the long list of establishments, he said it was "the small individual human exertions and contemplations across the lakes shores where many of us were born to the hospice where we have said many farewells," that he had tried to feature.
And to top it all off, it is fitting that In Canberra Tonight host and Fun Machine front man Chris Endrey provides the soundtrack, considering his own role in injecting humour (and glitter) into Canberra's communal memory making.
