Cool Moves

In less than a decade, Australia’s capital has managed to evolve from 'no go' to ‘creative cool’. How has it done it?

- Sue White

It’s rare that a school excursion creates long-lasting problems, but in Australia’s capital the thousands of schoolchildren descending on Canberra each year to visit Parliament House and the bush capital’s other institutions have had an unintended side effect. For many Aussies, sixth grade was the last time they visited Canberra and, upon becoming adults, most assumed nothing had changed since.

It was just one of numerous image problems which dogged Canberra for decades. “It’s full of politicians,” Aussies whinged, ignoring the dual reality that first, parliament only sits for 18 to 20 weeks a year and second, those politicians come from other parts of the country.“It’s so organised,” detractors said, leading one to wonder: why would disorganised be good?

Even Canberrans themselves weren’t selling the city’s benefits, a fact not lost on the Australian Capital Territory’s leadership. “We didn’t necessarily have the greatest level of endorsement from many people, particularly younger Canberrans,” says chief minister Andrew Barr.

In 2013, therefore, the city launched a major branding campaign. Whether by luck or design this was good timing, as it coincided with a range of other shifts that have, together, achieved what many thought was impossible: making Canberra cool.

Today, not only are tourism figures up – there was a 17 per cent increase in visitors in 2017 – but Canberrans themselves are voting with their feet.

“In its first 50 or 60 years, Canberra used to be a place people would come to work. Then they’d retire and go back to where they came from. Now the situation is that people stay here when they retire, and their kids and grandkids stay too. Plus we are continuing to attract young people,” Barr says. An impressive turnaround, for sure. But how did it happen?