• Journal of East-Asian Urban History
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.297-308
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• 2020

Canberra, the capital city of Australia, has been known as an example of the international Garden City movement, which started by an Englishman Ebenezer Howard in the late 19^th Century. As a new capital site, Canberra was designed by an American architect Walter Burley Griffin, the winner of the world-wide competition for a federal capital in 1912. However, a closer look at the early history of Canberra would reveal that the popular understanding of her as a Garden City was somewhat exaggerated and distorted. Griffin's ideas of the new capital strongly suggest that he was influenced by City Beautiful, an American urban planning trend. Also, Griffin's original plan for Canberra was never fully appreciated nor realized, as many objections and difficulties arisen. Furthermore, Australian understanding of 'Garden City' evolved to more inclusive and overlapping idea of greener and less condensed towns in general.