The idea

International competitions for major city plans were not uncommon at the turn of the 20th century. George Sydney Jones first suggested a competition to design the federal capital at the 1901 town planning conference in Melbourne. John Sulman later echoed the idea. In January 1910, a powerful bureaucrat, Colonel David Miller, lent his support. He was Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, and responsible for federal capital development. Miller wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs, King O’Malley, about conducting a worldwide competition to design the Australian capital.

 

 

The call

In 1911 O’Malley approved an international design competition. But he reserved the right to make the final decision on the winning plan to design the federal capital.

Interest in the competition soon turned to suspicion. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) ruled that only qualified architects and planners should judge the entries. It advised its members – including those in Australia – not to compete.

O’Malley thus excluded a large number of potential competitors. Despite strong advice from professionals in Australia and Britain, and from Miller – his own departmental secretary – O’Malley would not relent. He would make the ultimate decision on the plan for the new capital.

The competition was announced on 30 April 1911. Entries were due in nine months from that date, on 31 January 1912. In May the department began to distribute the material. Crates containing a model of the site and 25 wooden boxes filled with competition material were sent to: