Australian Capital Territory, Australia Genealogy

Guide to Australian Capital Territory, Australia ancestry, family history and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Background Information
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT, known as the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, until 1938) was envisioned by the Australian Constitution as the seat of government for the Commonwealth of Australia. It contains only one city, Canberra, the national capital. The site of the territory was chosen by parliamentary commissioners and control of the land formally passed from New South Wales to the Commonwealth in 1911. The traditional custodians of the land are the Ngunnawal people,

Getting started with Australian Capital Territory research

 * Australia Capital Territory Guided Research

Early History of the Australian Capital Territory
Canberra, the capital city of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Australia, is Ngunnawal country. The Ngunnawal are the indigenous people of this region and its first inhabitants. The neighbouring people are the Gundungurra to the north, the Ngarigo to the south, the Yuin on the coast, and the Wiradjuri inland. It is a harsh climate and difficult country for hunter-gatherer people. To live here required great knowledge of the environment, skilful custodianship of it and close cooperation.

First European Settlement
The first European settlement of the area, later known as the Limestone Plains (or ‘Manarro’, as it was called by local Aboriginal people), occurred when Joshua John Moore established a station at what is now Acton (site of the National Museum of Australia) in 1823. When he sought to purchase the land in December 1826, he referred to the location as ‘Canbery’, a name later used with various spellings for all the surrounding areas.

The local Aboriginal people were referred to by early white writers as the ‘Kamberra’, ‘Kghambury’, ‘Nganbra’ and ‘Gnabra’, all of which share some resemblance to ‘Canberra’ - the name of the capital announced at the Foundation Stone Ceremony by Lady Denman on 12 March 1913. There is little doubt that ‘Canberra’ is an anglicised version of the Aboriginal words, which is said to mean ‘meeting place’.

Siting and Naming of Canberra
In the first day of January 1901, the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania joined together in a new Commonwealth of Australia. Both before and after Federation, there was much public bickering about what and where a federal territory and Seat of Government should be. The Constitution said that the Parliament must choose a site at least one hundred miles (160km) from Sydney and that the Parliament would sit in Melbourne until a new parliament house was built in the new capital. More details about the history and development of Canberra and the ACT are found at the National Capital website.

Jurisdictions
The land currently forming the Australian Capital Territory was originally part of the State of New South Wales. On 1 January 1911, the Federal Capital Territory was ceded by New South Wales to the Commonwealth of Australia and in 1938 this was renamed the Australian Capital Territory. In 1915, further territory was surrendered by New South Wales on the coast at Jervis Bay which became the Jervis Bay Territory of the Commonwealth as a port for the Australian Capital Territory and it was administered from Canberra as part of the Federal Capital Territory. The Australian Capital Territory was granted a form of self-government on 6 December 1988.

The New South Wales town of Queanbeyan lies close to the Australian Capital Territory and a significant number of people who work or study in the ACT live there. If you are unable to find a record of a person with a known connection to Canberra, you may find them in New South Wales records with a Quenbeyan address.

Resources and Websites

 * 1913 Census