Tumut as the Federal City

Adelong and Tumut Express and Tumbarumba Post

10 April 1900

The claims of Tumut to selection as the site for the Federal Capital are being strongly urged in these districts, and, we might say, with justification.

When we consider the many advantages the stretch of country between Tumut on the one side and the opposite point, near Adelong, of the area mapped out by the local committee, has over other spots in the colony that lay similar claims to superiority of position and other requisite attributes, a great incentive must be given to continued advocacy of local interests.

The site pointed out here to Commissioner Oliver forms the nearest approach to the ideal that it will be possible to get, possessing, as it does, almost the entire list of natural features embodied in the qualifications laid down for the Commissioner as a basis on which to arrive at his judgment.

Its equidistance from the two chief capitals, its adjacency to the main line of railway, its accessibility, its altitude, its equable climate and picturesque scenery, the fertility of its soil (unsurpassed in the colonies), its admirable building sites for business, residential or other purposes, its adaptability by reason of its contour to a thorough system of sanitation, being practised, and its abundance of building materials combine to make up a whole most difficult to beat.

If New South Wales is to be blessed with the Federal Parliament's choice of a portion of its territory as the seat of the Federal Parliament, it is certain that Tumut, should, it not be favoured with the first award, will go pretty close in the running. But it requires the unabating recital of its praises in the ears of the powers-that-will-be to ensure its merits being adjudged fairly and impartially.