Philippine Connections

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate matters involved in the design of Canberra – a settlement built as a grand expression of Australian sovereignty. The inquiry considers how the use of urban planning strengthened Australia's embryonic sense of national identity after the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed in January 1901. Aligning Canberra's images and meanings with Australian society's evolution, this article interprets Canberra's plan within a framework of national politics and nationhood. This provides a fresh platform to understand the structure of the city, as proposed by the federal capital design competition winner, Walter Burley Griffin, and, moreover, permits a comparative analysis between Canberra and similar City Beautiful schemes proposed by the Americans as part of their colonial nation-building process in the Philippines during the early 1900s. The study grants an insight into the cultural, political, artistic and environmental forces that existed in the Asia-Pacific region at the start of the twentieth century, thereby improving our understanding of Canberra's urban form, but also augmenting comprehension of the connection between city design and political and cultural advancement in the Philippines and Australia at the start of the twentieth century.