• Home
  • Find of the month

Find of the month

April 2024

From the Snowy Mountains to the Pacific Ocean: Canberra's place in its region

Fig. 1. Appendix to preliminary report on a plan for the development of the ACT and Jervis Bay in relation to the surrounding region, Ministry of Post War Reconstruction, Dec 1945

Canberra and Canberrans are deeply connected to their surrounding regions in New South Wales and northern Victoria: the Snowy Monaro, the Southern Tablelands, the South Coast, and the Riverina. Many millennia before Europeans came to the region in the nineteenth century, the Ngunnawal people lived in and cared for Canberra and its region, along with other Aboriginal families and groups who maintained special relationships with the area. They were and are still neighboured by the Gundungurra to the north, the Ngarigo to the south, the Yuin on the coast, and the Wiradjuri inland.

Regional development was a fundamental part of early conceptions of Canberra as national capital. Rail connections with Yass and Jervis Bay, for example, were described as highly desirable in official reports and proposals. [i] Queanbeyan had been linked with Cooma as part of the Goulburn to Cooma Railway since 1889, and in 1913 the Canberra railway station at Kingston opened, connecting it to Queanbeyan and thus to Cooma, Goulburn and Sydney.

The two world wars and the Great Depression stalled both Canberra’s construction and regional development. Digitised newspaper articles on Trove show that debate and consternation about issues like railway transport were a perennial issue.[ii]

Politicians and planners gave renewed attention to regional development from the late 1940s. Ambitious infrastructure and nation-building projects like the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme and the Australian National University launched soon after the end of World War II.

One prominent advocate for development of the region around the ACT during this period was Ulrich Ellis (1904–1981). Ellis was a journalist, lobbyist, and public servant – including deputy-director of public relations in the Department of Post-war Reconstruction, 1944–1946. He is perhaps best-known as political secretary to Earle Page from 1928 to 1936.[iii] For many years he was also a passionate Canberran, helping to establish the Kangaroo Club (‘keeping Canberra hopping’ with events like the Kangarodeo[iv]), and a founding chairman of the Canberra Tourist Bureau. He also established the Office of Rural Research as a private enterprise in 1945.

Fig. 2. Ulrich Ellis, no date [circa 1940?]

Ellis was never shy about expressing his opinion and was a colourful and forthright public commentator. He was described in the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer in 1949 ‘as a small wiry chap’ and ‘full of fight as a bulldog ant’.[i] In the same year Ellis criticised the conditions in Canberra hotel bars, claiming they were too shocking for women to be allowed to work as barmaids.[ii] In 1945, two years before he was elected as a member, he had boldly described the ACT Advisory Council as ‘reminiscent of a pimple on the posterior of a giraffe, so far removed from the head of affairs that the healthy irritation it causes is rarely recognised as a symptom of public ill’. Some of his suggestions became increasingly pugnacious, as noted by the Sydney Morning Herald in 1949 when he moved to change the Council’s name from ‘Advisory’ to ‘Antediluvian’ and hold elections every day instead of every two years.[iii]

Ellis passionately campaigned for the representation and rights of Canberrans, and for the economic development of the surrounding region. In 1948 he took up comments by the Premier of Victoria, Tom Hollway, proposing a joint Royal Commission into the possibility of a new state, with Eden as capital.[iv]

Fig. 3. Extracts from ACT Advisory Council meeting minutes, 13 Sep 1948

Fig. 4. Extracts from ACT Advisory Council meeting minutes, 13 Sep 1948

While Ellis’ resolution passed and the Council wrote to the Minister for the Interior expressing interest in the development of the southeastern districts, the proposal did not proceed at the time. Minutes from the 11 October 1948 meeting show that the Advisory Council briefly discussed the issue again, noting that New South Wales had intimated, through the press, that it was not interested in a conference, nor did the Commonwealth did not appear inclined to pursue the matter.

Fig. 5. Letter to the ACT Advisory Council from Orbost Shire, Aug 1951

In 1951 the Shire of Orbost (now part of the Shire of East Gippsland), made its own proposal for regional development. Similarly to the ideas expressed by Premier Hollway in 1948, it proposed the incorporation of several shires, and the ACT, to form a new state with Twofold Bay (Eden) as the federal port.

A conference to discuss the proposal was held in Eden in November 1951, but again impetus faded over the following months and years, with a lack of interest from the states. By the time of the conference Ellis was no longer a member of the Territory Advisory Council. Frustrated on this issue and others, Ellis had resigned and walked out of a council meeting in May 1951, delivering a final memorial riposte: ‘The Council is a futile anachronism and is an obstacle to the provision of a more suitable body”[i] – a reference to long-held objections to the Council being advisory only. Already involved with the New England State movement, he later moved to Armidale and campaigned for the 1967 New State referendum.

Fig. 6. Extract from ACT Advisory Council minutes, 5 Nov 1951

It seems safe to say that a new state in the ACT region is even less likely now than last century. However the connections between Canberra and the surrounding regions are as important as ever. Indeed arguably these regional connections are even stronger now, as technology transforms so many aspects of work, education and business.

Images

Fig. 1. Appendix to Australia. Department of Post-war Reconstruction. Regional Planning Division (1945). Preliminary report on a plan for the development of the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay in relation to the surrounding region. Ministry of Post War Reconstruction, Regional Planning Division, [Canberra]

Fig. 2. Photograph of Ulrich Ruegg Ellis, no date [circa 1940?]. Courtesy State Library of Queensland. https://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/134181

Fig. 3. Extracts from ACT Advisory Council meeting minutes, 13 Sep 1948. ArchivesACT file 972: Territory Advisory Council – Development of the South Eastern Districts

Fig. 4. Extracts from ACT Advisory Council meeting minutes, 13 Sep 1948. ArchivesACT file 972: Territory Advisory Council – Development of the South Eastern Districts

Fig. 5. Letter to Territory Advisory Council from Orbost Shire, Aug 1951. ArchivesACT file 972: Territory Advisory Council – Development of the South Eastern Districts

Fig. 6. Extract from ACT Advisory Council minutes, 5 November 1951. ArchivesACT file 972. Territory Advisory Council – Development of the South Eastern Districts

References

i Australia. Parliament. (1909). Federal capital, proposed site at Yass-Canberra : papers respecting selection of territory and proposed site for the city, together with reports respecting topography, water supply, sewerages, railway communication, power, etc. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2772887528

ii See, for example NEARER (1934, April 26). Yass Tribune-Courier, p. 3. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/249514377

iii Andrew Moore, 'Ellis, Ulrich Ruegg (1904–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ellis-ulrich-ruegg-12459/text22409

iv 'KANGARODEO" (1932, January 13). The Canberra Times, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2263496

v NOTES FROM THE CITY. (1949, November 8). The Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168406995

vi Canberra Has Least Culture (1949, October 11). The Age, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189481181

vii "Put Hottentots On Council," Member Says (1949, October 11). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18129965

viii ACTION SOUGHT TO PLAN DEVELOPMENT OF EDEN (1948, August 26). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 3. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2762644

ix ACT Advisory Council minutes, 28 October 1948.ArchivesACT file 972. Territory Advisory Council – Development of the South Eastern Districts

x Member Walks Out Of Advisory Council (1951, May 16). The Inverell Times, p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185853326.

Ready to start your own research?

Contact us through our Request a record - ArchivesACT and we will be happy to help.

File Readers/Viewers

If you do not already have compatible software on your computer, free file readers/viewers can be downloaded from the following links.