Federal Capital Advisory Committee

The National Capital Authority (NCA) is a body of the Australian Government that was established to manage the Commonwealth's interest in the planning and development of Canberra as the capital city of Australia.

Timeline of the NCA and preceding bodies:

The FCAC oversaw the construction of Canberra from 1921 to 1924 following the termination of the contract of architect Walter Burley Griffin.

The Committee was chaired by Australian architect Sir John Sulman, and advised the Minister of Home Affairs on the Construction of Canberra and conducted a review of the Griffin Plan. The Committee proposed that development should take place in three stages:

The Committee was largely unsuccessful in achieving its aims, for example Parliament did not move to Canberra until 1927, and no permanent rail connection between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne was ever completed. However Sulman was instrumental in developing the garden city aspects of Canberra, he declared that the development of Canberra should take the form of ‘a garden town, with simple, pleasing, but unpretentious buildings’.

In 1924 the Committee was abolished due to the slow pace of development, it was replaced by the more successful Federal Capital Commission in 1925.

The FCC was formed to construct and administer Canberra from 1 January 1925. The Chief Commissioner of the body was Sir John Butters. The FCC was to prepare Canberra for the arrival of 1,100 civil servants and their families.

During the first 2 years of FCC operation Parliament House, The Lodge, the Albert Hall, the Institute of Anatomy, and the Australian School of Forestry and an Observatory on Mount Stromlo were completed. The FCC also oversaw construction of the Sydney and Melbourne commercial buildings in the City and significant residential development.

The FCC was disbanded on 1 May 1930 following the start of the great depression in 1929. Development after this point was not centrally planned until the establishment of the National Capital Planning and Development Committee in 1938.

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