Canberra, Australia's Capital City

Canberra, Australia's Capital City
Australian Capital Territory, Australia

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This is the view over the Australian capital city of Canberra, viewed from the lookout on Mount Ainsle.

The city of Canberra was specifically planned, designed and built to be the Australian captial city. Canberra currently has a population of approximately 330,000 people.

The district's change from a rural area within the Australian state of New South Wales, to the Australian Capital Territory, an area set aside for the national capital, began during debates over Federation in the early 20th century.

An international competition was held in 1911 to select a design for the layout of the city. An American architect won the competition in 1913. His idea was to divide the city into two parts using a lake as a dividing point. The sections divided into were: the civilisation part and the governmental part.

A variety of names were suggested for the capital, including Olympus, Paradise, Captain Cook, Shakespeare, Kangaremu, Eucalypta and Myola. The name of Canberra was eventually settled upon.

At midday on March 12, 1913 the city was officially given this name by Lady Denman the wife of the then Governor-General, at a ceremony on Kurrajong Hill (now known as Capital Hill) and building officially commenced. The city now commemorates this anniversary as "Canberra Day" each year on the third Monday of March.

The word Canberra is said to be derived from the various renditions into written English of the name of the indigenous people of the area, the Ngambri, one of a number of family groups that make up the Ngunnawal nation. The first non-Aboriginal landowner, Joshua John Moore, named his property "Canberry Station" and it was thus shown on the 1837 survey of the area conducted by James Larmer.

Explanations have been put forward that the name means 'meeting place' in the Ngunnawal language, with reference to the various transcriptions of Kambera (alternatively spelt Kamberra, Nganbra or Nganbirra). Alternatively the name was apparently used as a reference to corroborees held during the seasonal migration of the Ngunawal people to feast on the Bogong moths that pass through the region each summer. Another explanation sometimes given, but less commonly accepted, is that the word comes from an Aboriginal word "Nganbra" meaning "hollow between a woman's breasts", and refers to the plain between Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain.

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Australia - New Zealand / Australia

Lat: 36° 17' 12.4" S
Long: 149° 9' 29.69" E

Elevation: 806 Metres

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

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HARDWARE

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• Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL (EOS Digital Rebel XT) Camera

• Canon BG-E3 Battery Grip

• Canon RS-60E3 Remote Switch

• Canon EF-S 10-22 mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Zoom Lens

• Canon EW-83E Lens Hood

• Peace River Studios 3Sixty Panoramic Camera Mount

• Manfrotto 338 Levelling Base

• Acratech Universal Cork Top Quick Release Camera Plate

• Acratech Ultimate Ballhead Tripod Head

• Gitzo G1227MK2 Mountaineer Carbon Fiber Tripod

• Inca Hotshoe-mount Dual Spirit Level

• SanDisk Extreme III 1GB CompactFlash Memory Card

• NextoDI Nexto-CF ND-2500 60GB Portable Storage Device

• Garmin eTrex Vista C GPS Receiver

• Burton Snowboards F-Stop Camera Backpack

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SOFTWARE

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• Adobe Photoshop CS2 (RAW Image Conversion, Image Editing and Adjustments)

• New House Internet Services B.V. PTGui (Panorama Stitching)

• Helmut Dersch's Panotools (Panorama Stitching)

• New House Internet Services B.V. PTGui (Panorama Blending)

• Andrew Mihal's Enblend (Panorama Blending)

• Thomas Rauscher's Pano2QTVR (Blended Panorama Image to QTVR Movie Conversion)

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EXPOSURE

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• Panorama Type: Spherical

• Number of Images: 40 (3 rows x 12 images, 1 x zenith image, 3 x nadir images)

• Focal Length: 10mm (16mm at 35mm film equivalent)

• Aperture: f/8

• Shutter Speed: 1/800 second

• Sensor Sensitivity: ISO 100

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