When the first edition of The Canberra Times appeared on 3 September 1926, Canberra was home to around 5,000 people. Parliament still met in Melbourne, Lake Burley Griffin did not exist and much of the capital was yet to emerge.

Founded by Thomas Shakespeare as a weekly family newspaper, The Canberra Times became a daily publication in 1928 and grew alongside the city over the next century.

Always Canberra: 100 years of The Canberra Times presents this shared history through rarely seen photographs, front pages, cartoons and objects from the newspaper’s working life. Together, they show how a planned capital became a lived city and how the newspaper recorded its public events and everyday life.

Its pages captured the opening of the Provisional Parliament House, the creation of Lake Burley Griffin, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Dismissal. They preserved a less official history too: a Canberra Times photographer stepping in when a couple’s wedding photographer failed to appear, homemade contraptions taking flight over the lake during the Birdman Rally and Canberra celebrating the Raiders’ first premiership. These moments reveal a city shaped by more than its political institutions.

Behind every edition stood journalists, photographers, editors, cartoonists, typesetters and printers. For decades, they worked within earshot of the Fyshwick presses, surrounded by the sound of machinery and the smell of ink. Newsroom objects trace their changing work, from typewriters and printing plates to laptops and digital publishing.

Across one hundred years, The Canberra Times has informed public debate, shaped collective memory through its photographs and given Canberrans a place to be heard. Canberrans have questioned and challenged the newspaper in return, ensuring scrutiny worked in both directions.

Visit Always Canberra to see a century of Canberra through the events, personal memories and daily work that turned the city’s experiences into news.