While much criticism might be levelled at governments for not doing more great things, of the order of a national gallery or a national museum, it would be hard to argue that Canberra has been anything but awash in new memorials over the life of the National Capital Authority.
Anzac Parade is the stand-out. There are memorials dedicated to the Hellenic, Australian Army, Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Mounted Corp, New Zealand (the big basket handles at the Constitution Avenue intersection), the Rats of Tobruk, the air force, the navy, nurses and Kemal Ataturk. Next year comes a memorial for the peacekeepers.
Not far away, in Kings Park, HMAS Canberra, the Merchant Navy and Emergency Services personnel are remembered.
The adjacent Commonwealth Park is home to a modern monument, Stage 88, the popular performance space Canberra received with the Bicentennial.
Running the edge of Kings and Commonwealth parks is the R.G. Menzies Walk, opened in 2006 to honour the nation's longest-serving prime minister and great patron of the nation's capital.
In keeping with the man who decreed a Canberra suburb not be named after him (breaking the convention for late prime ministers), the walk is a low-cost affair, involving the construction of four plaques along a route already well trod.
Across the water are other monuments of place that keep a lower profile, too, such as the Patrick White Lawns and Peace Park near the National Library and Magna Carta Place, near Old Parliament House.
On this side of Lake Burley Griffin are also to be found the many tablets for Australians of the Year, dozens of them still blankly waiting to honour great citizens in the future.
Here also are the grand Federation Mall, the International Flag Display and Reconciliation Place and Commonwealth Place.
It was to these monumental achievements that National Capital Authority chairman Michael Ball turned when he addressed the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Capital in April.
Mr Ball said, ''The proof of the success of the NCA's decisions is to be seen in Canberra today.
''The proof is to be seen at Commonwealth Place, at Reconciliation Place, at the Old Parliament House rose gardens and along Anzac Parade.
''... We believe that the majority of stakeholders agree that the last two decades have been golden for Canberra, with a record number of national places and commemorative works having been built and because the Griffin Legacy is a comprehensive and sustainable plan for the future development of Canberra in both the national and local interest.''
The NCA's chief executive, Annabelle Pegrum, noted there were 14 Commonwealth agencies acting independently in national capital areas, making ad-hoc capital-works bids to government, and adopting variable design and construction standards.
''In our experience, [they] frequently ignore or understate the public realm between the works and the implications for offsite infrastructure,'' Ms Pegrum said.
''The authority proposes that a comprehensive national capital improvement program be prepared to coordinate the Commonwealth's capital initiatives in the areas of special national importance.
''This is a very similar approach to that used in Washington DC.''
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