The third presentation in our 2023 Online Lecture series will focus on Canberra.
Canberra has been factored in to various formulations of Australian modernism/modernity, from the earliest formulations of the purposes the national capital should serve, the contending visions of an international design competition for an ‘ideal city’, the tensions between garden city and a city beautiful ideals through to challenges of adapting a subsidised project to the demands of viable self-governing economy. In between there are the very distinctive registers of the experiment the city represented in the post- World War II decades.
This lecture will offer reflections on ways in which we might make connections between the personal, social, aesthetic and political of this period, and reflect on its historical significance.
Speaker: Professor Nicholas Brown
Nicholas Brown is a professor in the School of History in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. In 2014 Cambridge University Press published his History of Canberra, and he has maintained an interest in the history of the city and its place in the wider national story. He is convenor of the Canberra Museum and Gallery advisory committee, and has served on the ACT Heritage Council.
Image: Government House, Yarralumla, from the National Arboretum Canberra. Image© Wendy McDougall Photographer