Why did Canberra become the capital of Australia?

by Kohei Watanabe
(Tokyo)

Where is the capital of Australia? Someone may answer the question Sydney or Melbourne. But it is wrong. The capital of Australia is Canberra.

Canberra is far from a huge city like Sydney or Melbourne. Generally, the biggest city becomes the capital of a country. Why did Canberra become the capital of Australia, not other big cities?

Australia was a colony of UK. As with many countries that had been the colony of UK, Australia was separated in many states. So many cities wanted to become the capital. Especially, a competition between Sydney and Melbourne was heated.

Accordingly, Australians made Canberra the capital of their country, because Canberra was situated at the middle point between Sydney and Melbourne.

In Australia, the center of politics is Canberra, but the center of the economy is Sydney because Sydney has a larger population than Canberra. There is a bipolarization.