Funding levels for the NCA, its role administering the National Capital Plan, and how it should participate in debates about policies that threaten the city are all live matters.

Ms Barnes, who became chief executive in February, is settling into her new role but already has an answer to questions whether her agency should be a non-partisan advocate for Canberra within the federal government in matters like the Coalition's push to move public service jobs into regional areas.

"My role is to take Canberra to the rest of Australia, not to be an advocate for particular issues," she said.

Reaching the top floor of Canberra's National Carillon, commanding a long view of the city nestled between its mountains, Ms Barnes says it will keeping growing through a similar conversation to the one conducted by its architect Walter Burley Griffin.

"The bones are there. The general agreement around enhancing what we've got is there. It's about working together, having conversations, a bit like Walter, asking what the future might be."

What would he have thought of the city, more than one hundred years later, viewing it from the high vantage above Aspen Island?

It's grown and realised its shape by the ebb and flow brought by war, economic depression, compromise, and waves of political indifference and enthusiasm.

Mr Griffin didn't imagine motor cars would fill roads in the volumes taken for granted today, Ms Barnes said. But the new National Capital Authority chief believes he wouldn't complain, looking out from the carillon.

"Considering the size of what's happened in terms of technology, I think he would be very pleased."

The essence of the original plan was alive in the city's form, she said.

The former Sydneysider admits to following the typical path of many newcomers to the capital, having moved from her home city four years ago for her previous role heading National Parks.

Swapping Manly for Canberra, she has never lived at this altitude but doesn't miss being close to the coast. "I came here and I loved it."

"Canberra is a bit of a model for how you can have a regional centre away from the coast."

Earlier, she was chief executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage in the NSW government, and has previously worked for the state's Environmental Protection Authority. Ms Barnes said she has arrived at her new job with respect for the heritage she will manage and the responsibility it would bring administering the National Capital Plan.

The daughter of a Dutch immigrant, Ms Barnes' father was part of a team that submitted a design for the Sydney Opera House - losing to Jorn Utzon. She's grown up a history buff, and before even knowing about the NCA chief executive job, she went to the US and on the trip learned about architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his connection with Griffin.

Ms Barnes said Canberra's growth would bring new challenges to the city as it tried to keep the character setting it apart from other capitals.

"With a modern city and a great environment, there will be more people who want to come here."

That's a good thing, she adds, but it raises questions. "Then it's how do you maintain the essence of the national capital?"

"It's having discussions with the community about how we keep the essence but become a sophisticated, modern city."