Jervis Bay – Pacific City

Jervis Bay is famous for its white beaches, especially at Callala Beach, and for whale and dolphin watching.

We visited the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, which was fascinating and I recommend visiting. There, I picked up a booklet called Capital Idea by Bridget Sant, which tells the story of how Jervis Bay was once intended to become a major industrial harbor for Canberra. Jervis Bay has the capacity to accommodate large ships which made it interesting for developers. However, due to world wars, economic recessions and competition from Sydney and Melbourne in the first half of the 20th century, the planned railway link between Canberra and Jervis Bay was never built, stalling and finally canceling development.

One of the planned cities was even set to be called “Pacific City.”

It’s interesting to see how new built cities struggle to perform. Canberra seems to struggle in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne but also cities, e.g. Masdar City in UAE which never really continued developing and attracting more population. So it will be interesting to how the new City in Saudi Arabia The Line will perform or the new government city of Indonesia, Nusantara.