Leasing of publicly owned land in Canberra, Australia

This chapter concerns Australia's experience of leasing public land for urban use in Canberra, the national capital.(1) The first section describes Australian land policy more generally in the period leading up to the federation of the British colonies in 1901, and the decision to build a new national capital. Land policy had been a major staple of politics since the 1830s. There was widespread criticism of the control of huge rural areas by squatters who paid little if anything for their land. Urban land speculation also was rife, especially in the 1880s (Cannon 1966). Much that is good about Canberra, especially its planning, has been facilitated by public leasehold and by the public ownership of land prior to urban development. Notwithstanding this overall assessment, this chapter pays a lot of attention to its failures. The potential of public leasehold on a publicly owned site to contribute to very good public planning and public finance has not been fully realized. In recent decades, in particular, public leasehold has been corrupted in many ways.