One hundred years ago this week the Queanbeyan Age enthusiastically reproduced a Sun reporter's glowing account of the federal capital territory. In spite of forecasts this place was somewhere even the crows (ravens) would die of thirst, the reporter found a paradise, and just the place to provide farms for our returning heroes.
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"GOOD LAND AT CANBERRA. The Commonwealth Government has farms on hand, hundreds of them. But is the land good enough [for soldier settler farms]? This question demanded inquiry."
And so the man from the Sun sallied forth.
"The federal capital site at Canberra has had the most abominable things said about it in the federal Parliament. It was called an 'arid desert where only death flourishes', and 'a land of sand where a crow would perish of thirst'.
"THROUGH PLEASANT FIELDS.
"So it was with some trepidation a motor tour of this terrible region was commenced. It proved to be a place of green pastures, waving cornfields, and warm-looking plough-turned soil. The country looked well. For mile upon mile over the beautiful roads of the territory the car ran past stretching acres of land apparently suitable for wheat ...
"There are more than 30,000 acres of first-quality land so good that 20 acre blocks would each be ample to provide a good living for a soldier's family.
"It is our duty to help forward a scheme whose practical value runs side by side with sentiment for the assistance of those brave men who have risked all to preserve our heritage."
