History of Sydney
With the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, Sydney ceased to be a colonial capital and became the capital of the Australian state of New South Wales. With industrialisation, Sydney expanded rapidly, and by the early 20th century it had a population well in excess of one million.
Dalgety, New South Wales
The town also became a meeting place between white settlers and local Aborigines, who would camp along the river bank on the way to the Snowy Mountains. The Thaua people and Ngarigo people lived in this area seasonally.
In 1903 a Federal Royal Commission named Dalgety as the location for Australia's national capital city. The choice was based on criteria including climate, food supply, land ownership and ability to support major industries, and was formalised in the "Seat of Government Act 1904". In an early demonstration of Sydney-Melbourne rivalry, the decision was immediately opposed by the Parliament of New South Wales which argued that Dalgety was too close to Melbourne and too far from Sydney. A more practical objection was the distance to the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line and the expense involved in constructing a spur to the proposed capital.