Canberra is a special place – being both a designed city and the national capital of Australia. Its site was chosen for its natural advantages – its good water supplies, land suitable for development and a natural backdrop of hills and mountains that are aesthetically pleasing.

Walter Burley Griffin’s original intentions continue to guide overall development, particularly in the parliamentary triangle, principal avenues and wooded urban hills. 1.

Canberra is also iconic. Its history and inland landscape setting – city and urban streets imposed on and interspersed with open grass and forested land (‘bush’), rivers, creeks and lakes – define it as the ‘bush capital’. Many Canberrans have developed a strong sense of place with the city and its environs. They also understand much more than previously about the impact that sprawling urban design and lifestyle choices can have on natural resources.

Canberra’s population and urban footprint has grown far larger than originally planned or imagined. As a consequence, the condition of the ‘bush’ that surrounds and intersects the city is deteriorating. The ‘bush’ in ‘bush capital’ is at risk.

The bush at risk does not consist of just the trees on the hills and mountains around the city. In the context of the bush capital and this natural resource management (NRM) plan, ‘bush’ includes all the natural assets of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) – its upland forests, woodlands and grasslands, soils, and waterways; and the organisms living in its landscapes.

These natural assets depend on each other for their health and long-term survival. The bush capital will only live up to its iconic status if all its natural assets are also in iconic condition.

This plan defines the natural resources of the ACT and brings together the aspirations for their retention in the landscape. It also links the future of natural resources to the people who live with them, who benefit from them, and who take care of them on behalf of all Australians.