Skip to main content

2013: Canberra's centenary year



Canberra, the capital of Australia, turns 100 on March 12 this year.
A hundred years ago, Australia’s entire population was just 4,800. Now it’s almost 22 million. Canberra was home to the Ngunnawal, Ngarigo, Wandandian, Walgulu, Wiradjuri, and Gandangara people, long before Europeans settled in the area, and now has 367,752 citizens (July 31, 2012), making it the eighth largest city in Australia.
Canberra will celebrate its centenary year with activities throughout 2013. It commenced with a free family concert and party to ring in the New Year with fireworks. The 9:00pm fireworks had a Japanese-inspired cherry blossom theme, while the midnight display ended with a 100 fireworks salute.
Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra, Robin Archer, announced 100 “journeys of contemplation and investigation” for 2013. This will include promoting historical themes and projects around the capital’s architecture and design, not just in terms of buildings. The year celebrates sport, culture, local produce, stores, exhibitions, people, places, performances – over the past 100 years and into the future - with memorabilia and memories.
This year will also celebrate 100 years of writing by Canberra authors. In addition, the annual National Multicultural Festival aims to be a grand affair this year, to be held from February 8-10. It will include the return of the 'Indigenous Showcase' at the festival highlighting a performance by singer and guitarist G Yunupingu, the return of the Fringe Festival, and the Food and Dance Spectacular with local, national, and international cuisine.
The new Centenary Women’s and Children’s Hospital will be completed in 2013 and there will also be a special centenary-themed birth certificate for all children born in the Australian Capital Territory in 2013.
Centenary of Canberra events are listed at www.canberra100.com.au



Note: G Yunupingu died at the Royal Darwin Hospital on 25 July 2017 at the age of 46. He was described as 'the greatest voice this continent [Australia] has ever recorded' - he had performed for the United States President Barack Obama, the Pope, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. 


 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

 

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

Flower Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 


MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more