Editing Australian Capital Territory (section)

===City and towns===
{{Main|Canberra|Suburbs of Canberra}}
[[File:BikepathCanberra.jpg|thumb|Bikepath to Weston Creek.]]
[[File:Inner-canberra 01MJC.png|right|thumb|Inner Canberra demonstrates some aspects of the Griffin plan, in particular the [[Parliamentary Triangle, Canberra|Parliamentary Triangle]].]]  Major settlements include the city of [[Canberra]] and the towns of [[Williamsdale, Australian Capital Territory|Williamsdale]], [[Oaks Estate, Australian Capital Territory|Oaks Estate]], [[Uriarra, Australian Capital Territory|Uriarra]], [[Tharwa, Australian Capital Territory|Tharwa]] and [[Hall, Australian Capital Territory|Hall]].

The urban areas of the territory are organised into a hierarchy of districts, town centres, group centres, local suburbs as well as other industrial areas and villages. There are seven districts (with an eighth currently under construction), each of which is divided into smaller suburbs, and most of which have a town centre which is the focus of commercial and social activities. The districts were settled in the following chronological order:
*[[North Canberra]]: mostly settled in the 1920s and '30s, with expansion up to the 1960s, now 14 suburbs;
*[[South Canberra]]: settled from the 1920s to '60s, 13 suburbs;
*[[Woden Valley]]: first settled in 1963, 12 suburbs;
*[[Belconnen]]: first settled in 1967, 25 suburbs;
*[[Weston Creek]]: settled in 1969, 8 suburbs;
*[[Tuggeranong]]: settled in 1974, 19 suburbs;
*[[Gungahlin]]: settled in the early 1990s, 18 suburbs although only 15 are developed or under development;
*[[Molonglo Valley]]: first suburbs currently under construction.

The North and South Canberra districts are substantially based on Walter Burley Griffin's designs.{{sfn|Wigmore|1971|p=64}} In 1967, the then [[National Capital Development Commission]] adopted the "Y Plan" which laid out future urban development in the territory a series of central shopping and commercial area known as the 'town centres' linked by freeways, the layout of which roughly resembled the shape of the letter Y,{{sfn|Sparke|1988|pp=154–155}} with Tuggeranong at the base of the Y and Belconnen and Gungahlin located at the ends of the arms of the Y.{{sfn|Sparke|1988|pp=154–155}}