A Canberra Childhood in the 1950s - Quadrant Online
Canberra in those far-off days was regarded as a joke by the rest of Australia. The essence of this ridicule was the notion of a 'Bush Capital' making even less impression on the visitor than such neighbouring country towns as Goulburn. compared to the great coastal cities, whence most of Canberra’s population was embarrassingly unimpressive
Source: quadrant.org.au