 The Australian colonies became a federated nation at the beginning of 1901.Gale strongly advocated making the Canberra-Queanbeyan district the site of Australia's future capital city.Gale later recorded in his newspapers and on page 5 of his valuable book "Canberra History & Legends" that on Christmas Day 1855, he was riding his horse across the Limestone Plains to Kurrajong Hill (now called Capital Hill where the new Parliament House is built) when he had a "prophetic inspiration"