Australian Capital Territory Culture & Language

Canberra carries a national reputation for being boring that residents find tiresome and visitors usually abandon within a day. The institutions are genuinely world-class and the inner suburbs have a café, brewery and restaurant culture out of proportion to the population.

The national collections are the Territory's cultural core — the War Memorial, the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the National Library and the National Museum, all free and all within a few kilometres.

It is a transient city by design: a large share of the population arrives for a posting and leaves again, which makes it unusually open to newcomers and unusually empty at weekends.

Ngunnawal culture is increasingly present in public naming and ceremony, and the Territory has led on formal recognition.

English is universal. The Territory has a highly educated, internationally mixed population, and Mandarin, Hindi, Nepali and Vietnamese are all commonly heard.

Ngunnawal is the language of this country and is being revived, appearing in place names and official ceremony.

Local usage worth knowing: the Territory here means the ACT, not the Northern Territory; the triangle is the parliamentary zone; and a public servant is simply the most common job rather than a remark.