Canberra in the beginning

It might be noted, incidentally, that O'Malley's egotism led him to anticipate the work of the Governor-General and Prime Minister Fisher at the foundation stone ceremony by arranging, three weeks earlier, an impressive function at Canberra, at which he drove in the first peg of the city survey, on Capital Hill. To temper this arrogance somewhat, he brought along also the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Charles McDonald, to drive a second peg - arcades ambo (blackguards both).

To those of us to whom it was a duty, and to many other Australians, the ceremonies of the laying of foundation stones seemed to be valuable steps towards fulfilling the constitutional obligation to provide adequately, and without further delay, for the establishment of the Seat of Government in its own Territory.

There were many others, however, in and out of Parliament, who had opposed the choice of Canberra, and, indeed, any action at that stage to move the Parliament from its intended temporary home in Melbourne. Only one State Premier (from New South Wales) attended the Canberra Day naming ceremony. South Australia was represented by her Chief Secretary.

Even in New South Wales there were strong opponents of the selected site. Sir William Lyne, a former Premier, and later a Federal minister, advocating Tumut in his own electorate, said of Canberra, ''that place will never be the Federal Capital''. He did not live to learn that one of its future suburbs [Lyneham] would bear his name.

Poynton, of South Australia, had stated, ''I should regard its selection as the greatest blunder. If it [the Capital] is located at Canberra, it will not grow''. Later we observed the ironic situation that Poynton, as Minister for Home and Territories, was required to take a leading part in the post-war drive to resume active progress of the Canberra programme, in 1921.

The naming ceremony on March 12, 1913, gave The Bulletin ample scope for its venom. Under the heading of ''A Fantastic Christening'', King O'Malley and Fisher are depicted as high priests at Canberra. O'Malley is holding the child (the capital) in his arms and he tells Fisher, richly garbed in garments embroidered with kangaroos, rabbits and lizards - O'Malley's also shows roosters - that all the suggested names are in a hat, from which the Governor-General will draw one out. But they have forgotten to bring the christening water to Canberra, and O'Malley explains that men have been sent out, with divining rods, to see where it may be found. This involves a delay of 10 years! Again, the Cotter is described as the river where ''the trout are suffocated with mud and captured by hand''.

Another of its cartoons, by Vincent, was associated with a clever playlet, with Lord Denman in uniform, and Fisher, O'Malley and Hughes dressed as troubadours with a banjo, singing alternate verse and chorus about O'Malley's proposed choice of ''Myola'' as the name for the capital.

That the old-established name of Canberra has proved to be a happy solution is now quite definite. Australians, on Canberra Day, have the splendid opportunity each year to honour those national ideals for which it now stands so firmly, and which they must teach the coming generation likewise to cherish.

*First published in The Canberra Times on March 12, 1966.

I n approaching its unusual and vital task of removing some hundreds of public servants with their families from Melbourne to Canberra, the Federal Capital Commission took steps to impress upon the transferees that their co-operation in the affair, and their understanding of all the elements involved, would be decidedly in their own interests.

They were told the commission was trying to make every provision for their comfort, so that all essential requirements would be met and the move made with the least possible inconvenience to each officer.

Because of the long-sustained and hostile Melbourne press propaganda against Canberra, most public servants thought the new ''bush capital'' was in a dreary and waterless waste - the domain of rabbits, snakes and vultures with little or no amenities. So the feelings at the prospect of living under such supposed conditions ranged from disfavour to dismay.

My appearance among my public-servant friends, who referred to me sarcastically as ''Mr Canberra'', was an unpleasant reminder of the evil day to come. I half-seriously challenged some senior officers, who should have known better, with disloyalty, suggesting that, if dissatisfied, they should resign, and they were wrongly influencing their juniors towards a contempt for the Constitution.

One day after such banter and a declaration that their negative attitude towards the transfer would lead nowhere, I suggested that they should form a representative service committee, to confer with us and to ascertain fully all relevant conditions and discuss the details involved. It was my contention that public servants, if they were organised wisely, could induce the Government to make all adequate provisions at the capital for education and for social and sporting amenities.

Such a committee was duly set up with a senior Treasury officer as its very practical secretary.

After the commission began its work the Chief Commissioner and his officers in Canberra found it to be an excellent vehicle for obtaining information of a more personal character, as to housing requirements, and leisuretime pursuits.

Conversely, this Canberra committee did much to counteract misleading reports and, most importantly, to consolidate public service views in a positive direction, accepting the capital as a fait accompli.

Members of the committee, of course, paid visits to Canberra and, at the suggestion of Sir John Butters, a number of their wives came also to make a qualified domestic scrutiny and offer suggestions from a woman's point of view.

One thing about which the women were concerned was the absence of a gas supply for cooking, to which, at that time, most of them were accustomed in Melbourne. Electric stoves, they said, were slow and ineffective for many operations.

Sir John Butters, an experienced electricalengineer, would not swallow these objections and arranged for a woman skilled in cooking with electricity to come to Canberra and demonstrate to the Melbourne ladies. Everything they had declared could not be done - such as the ''browning'' of a joint - she immediately performed with success. Much of the objection to electric cooking was therefore dispelled, although some ''die-hards'' afterwards used one-fire stoves or kerosene cookers.

An interesting feature of the housing situation was the agreement by the government, made at the instance of the commission, to take over at a fair market valuation the residence owned in Melbourne by a transferee, and to credit the amount involved in the officer's account in respect to the purchase of a house in Canberra.

For the general information of [officers], the Federal Capital Commission, in April 1926, prepared and distributed a fairly elaborate booklet containing notes on most matters of interest to the transferees. It explained the features of the city and the territory, its climate and landscape and full details in relation to housing, with plans of many types.

It told of the provisions made for education, sport and cultural pursuits, medical and hospital services, public worship, friendly societies and lodges, all city services, tourist facilities, and most important of all, the sources of supply of provisions and household necessities.

Because of the care and foresight with which all preliminary arrangements were made by the commission, the earlier transfers for which it was responsible were carried out, despite forebodings, with little difficulty or inconvenience. It was a surprise to see how the transferred officers, in general, settled down smoothly and comfortably in their new surroundings and soon developed friendly relations and congenial interests.

They stayed, if necessary, at one of the hotels until their furniture arrived, when they found it carefully installed, together with immediate supplies of food and firewood, with friendly advisers at hand. At intervals they were given, as departments or branches, a welcome at a social gathering, as a definite gesture to receive them into the community life of the capital.

The first public servant to be moved was an officer of the Parliamentary Library, Mr Whittle, who came in charge of an early instalment of its valuable collections. Asked by the Press if there had been any competition for the honour of being the first man to move, he replied ''certainly not - but there will be keen competition to be the last''. But he soon settled down comfortably.

The details of the removal were arranged like a military operation. In fact, the commission secured the services of an experienced army service officer, Colonel W.P. Farr, to take charge of this activity and to control the federal capital transportation branch in close touch with the commission's Canberra organisation.

An office was established at 31 King Street, Melbourne, and this became a bureau of information for public servants. The fullest available particulars about the capital and its territory were available, both in photography and printed description.

A well-informed commission officer was located at the bureau to discuss any matter with the transferees, especially to deal with their housing requirements. He had contour maps of all developing subdivisions, and plans of the many types of houses being built, or which could be built if selected.

The commission was prepared to build for a purchaser to its own various plans or to plans supplied by the future owner; if desired, the public servant could engage an architect to design and arrange independently for a registered builder to construct a house.

Finance was available to help building on the 99-year leaseholds, either from the commission - for terms of 20 to 25 years, with a minimum deposit of £100 and repayments on a rental-purchase basis - or from the Commonwealth Bank. The latter scheme required that the residence be built by the commission, the advance to be up to 70 per cent of the value, with interest at 5½ per cent a year, repayments in instalments to be spread over 20 years.

To help the approved cases, the commission would finance portion of the deposit required by the bank on second mortgage, with interest at 7 per cent a year for a period of five years.

At this time, 1926, houses built by the commission cost from £900 for a one-bedroom dwelling to £2375 for a comfortable three-bedroom residence in Forrest.

* First published in The Canberra Times on May 7, 1966.

F or those of us concerned officially with the long-awaited first offer of Canberra city land for occupation by private enterprise, on a leasehold tenure, historic December 12, 1924, was a day of excitement.

The arrangements for the auction sale had been made by the Commonwealth Surveyor General, Colonel Goodwin, and wide publicity given to the occasion.

The principal auctioneer was C.H. Crammond, of the firm of Richardson and Wrench of Sydney, and with him were associated the three members of the Queanbeyan firm of Woodger and Calthorpe, who, for weeks before, had been showing prospective buyers around the 289 residential and 204 business blocks to be offered at the sale.

Camp Hill, Griffin's site for the future permanent Parliament House, between the present Commonwealth Offices, East and West Blocks, was chosen as the location for the rostrum. There was a fine panoramic view.

The Bruce-Page Government was represented by the Chief Whip, Major C. (afterwards Sir Charles) Marr, who mounted the rostrum on that very warm morning, introduced the auctioneers, and invited every one of the 300 persons present ''to take a piece of Canberra away in his pocket''.

The veteran politician, Sir Austin Chapman, no longer in office, reminded the audience that to Mr John Gale, of Queanbeyan, belonged the credit for the original suggestion that Canberra should be the site of the capital.

Sir Austin had fought for, and almost secured, Dalgety as the capital site, but the substitution of Canberra for it, in 1908, still left the capital in his electorate.

An initial difficulty for the auctioneer, Mr Crammond, was to dispel impressions given in a somewhat devastating attack on the conditions of the proposed leases that had appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald and was written by W.P. Bluett, of Brindabella, a local correspondent.

Bluett attacked the provisions for non-transfer before compliance with the building covenant, and said that if a lessee set up, say, a chemist's business, the shop would have to be used for that purpose for 99 years. He declared that the Canberra lease would become ''a drug in the market'' unless government financial aid became available.

On the morning of the sale, the Herald fired another shot, stating ''the consensus of opinion today is that the Federal Ministry has been unwise in yielding to political pressure and submitting leaseholds in the territory at auction so early in the city's progress''.

It was a good thing that we had arranged for Mr Cyril Davies, then of the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor's Office, Melbourne, to come to Canberra, in case of legal difficulties. He was able to assure Crammond that there was nothing in Bluett's contentions, so the auctioneer announced that such adverse publicity, on the eve of the sale, ''was grossly untrue, unfair, and unBritish in spirit''.

He then proceeded to show how mistaken were the views taken in Bluett's story. For example, he said, the chemist lessee could sell his building ''to butcher, baker or candlestick maker''.

The blocks offered were located at Eastlake (now Kingston), Manuka Centre (Griffith), Blandfordia (Forrest), Red Hill, Civic Centre (City), and Ainslie (Braddon and Reid). Of the 393 lots presented, 147 were sold at prices ranging from £6 to £58 per foot for business sites, and from 10 shillings to £3 and 4 shillings for residential blocks, representing a capital value of £60,340. Of the remaining blocks, 149, including the whole balance of the business sites, were soon subsequently disposed of.

The first block offered, a business site at Kingston, valued at £650, after spirited bidding, was knocked down to J.B. Young and Co., of Queanbeyan, for £2050, and the first residential lease, in the same locality and valued at £220, was secured by the well-known land promoter, Henry Halloran, for £400.

Blandfordia sites went up to £470. At City, the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney took a block at £2050, and the Bank of Australasia, one at £1550. Woodger and Calthorpe bid £700 for their office block in Northbourne Avenue.

The only Member of Parliament to purchase a site at the sale was Senator Sir Walter Kingsmill, who secured one at Red Hill for £350. The Hon. T.M. Shakespeare obtained a residential block in Red Hill, and also the minor industrial site on which to found The Canberra Times and his printing establishment.

* First published in The Canberra Times on December 18, 1965.

Charles Studdy Daley joined the newly-formed Commonwealth Public Service in 1905, becoming a clerk in the Public Works Branch. He went on to be one of Canberra's pivotal public servants, awarded the OBE in 1927 for his services to the national capital. In 1930, he became Civic Administrator (a sort of unelected mayor) and spent the rest of his working life at the heart of Canberra's administration.

As I Recall: Reminiscences of Early Canberra, first published in 1994, is a collection of regular Canberra Times columns written by the late Charles Daley in the mid-1960s.

An electronic version of the book has been created and edited by the descendants of Mr Daley as a tribute to his memory and to mark the Centenary of the naming of Canberra as Australia's capital. The ebook is now available for free download at www.asirecall.org

The Canberra Times will publish further columns from As I Recall throughout the Centenary year.