Local clans gathered here for corroborries and feasts on the annual bogan moths migration in summer that they would roast and eat whole.
The meaning of the name Canberra is still disputed today. The most excepted explanation is that it means "Meeting Place." The meeting place could imply the bogan moth annual feast or the meeting of the rivers.
It derives from an Aboriginal word "Kambera" "Kamberra" "Nganbra" "Nganbirra" "Ngambri" "Nganberra" and various other spellings and corruptions.
Another explanation sometimes given, but less commonly accepted, is that the word comes from an Aboriginal word "Nganbra" meaning "gap between a woman's breasts", and refers to the plains that lie between Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain.
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Australia needed a capital city and Melbourne (at the time) was the fastest growing and the largest city in Australia so it was an obvious place for the capital and Sydney, another large city was supported to be the capital as it was the first city and birthplace of Australia.
Other states supported both Sydney and Melbourne and neither city could agree to the other becoming the capital.
Eventually, a compromise was reached: Melbourne would be the capital on a temporary basis while a new capital was built somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne.
The site of Canberra was chosen in 1908. An international design competition was conducted by the Department of Home Affairs in 1910, the design by Walter Burley Griffin and his wife was chosen for the city. Their idea was to divide the city into two parts using a lake as a dividing point. The sections divided into were: the civilian area and the governmental area.
The Australian Capital Territory was declared on 1 January 1911.
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The area which eventually became the Australian Capital Territory was inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Walgalu tribes. The Ngarigo lived south-east of the ACT, the Gundungurra to the north, the Yuin on the coast and the Wiradjuri to the west.
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