The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is a small enclave within New South Wales, created at federation to house the national capital. It covers just under 2,400 square kilometres — less than 0.03% of Australia's land mass — and almost all of it is given over to Canberra and its surrounding parkland.
Canberra is the ACT's only city of note, and the reason anyone visits. It is a planned capital, designed in the early 20th century by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin after they won an international competition in 1911. The result is a city of grand avenues, artificial lakes, and deliberately low-rise government buildings arranged on a geometric grid around Lake Burley Griffin. The national institutions — parliament, war memorial, national gallery, national library — are all here, well-funded and free or cheap to enter.
The territory also contains a significant area of bushland and nature reserves, including parts of the Namadgi National Park, which covers over 40% of the ACT and extends into the rugged ranges west of the city. It offers solid hiking and some excellent wildlife spotting relatively close to the urban centre.
