Canberra, not Sydney. Canberra exists because Sydney and Melbourne could not agree which of them should be the capital, so a new city was built between them; parliament moved there in 1927.
This is the most commonly mistaken capital in the English-speaking world, and the mistake has a reason: Canberra was invented to end an argument, and it has never been a famous city.
When the Australian colonies federated in 1901, Sydney and Melbourne each expected to be the capital. The constitution settled it by refusing both: the capital would be in New South Wales, at least 100 miles from Sydney, on territory owned by the Commonwealth. Melbourne would hold the parliament in the meantime.
Twenty-six years passed between federation and the move, and the "provisional" Parliament House served for sixty-one.
Parliament House, the High Court of Australia, the Governor-General at Government House, every federal department and every embassy. About 460,000 people live there, which makes it Australia's largest inland city and its eighth largest overall.
Sydney is the largest city and the capital of New South Wales. Melbourne is the second largest and the capital of Victoria. Neither has ever been the national capital in its own right, though Melbourne held the parliament for those first twenty-six years.
The same compromise produced Ottawa, and the same instinct built Brasília.
The places above come from GeoNames, reconciled against Wikidata. Last checked 21 September 2026. How we know · Suggest a correction