You could go in circles in Australia's capital city — but that's just how the city is planned. From a prize-winning design by American architect Walter Burley Griffin, Canberra was built from the ground up according to Griffin's vision.
Griffin, born in 1876 in Maywood near Chicago, won in 1910 the international competition to design the capital of Australia, much as another non-Australian, the Danish architect Jørn Utzon, won the competition to design that Sydney icon, the Sydney Opera House.
Canberra, of course, is the capital of the Australian Capital Territory (and of the Australian nation), and while most visitors to the territory delight in the city's attractions, there are those who venture outside the city to explore the surrounding farmlands, bushland, and national park.
Photo: Australian Parliament House © Australian Tourist Commission
The city’s name is said to derive from the local Aboriginal word Kanbarra, meaning “meeting place,” in the old Ngunnawal language.