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It's a simple map, published a century ago in the Commonwealth Gazette between pages of customs and tender notices.

But the "plan of the lay-out of the city of Canberra and its environs" gazetted on November 19, 1925 finally enshrined Walter Burley Griffin's vision and made it a lasting touch point for a new city with national ambition.

The plan, devised by Griffin and his wife, Marion, had been the last entry to arrive in the international competition to design a new Australian capital.

"The Australian authorities may merely adopt my ground plan and fill in the architectural details to suit themselves," Griffin said on winning the competition in 1912.

"However, if my plan is carried out in all its details, I think the Australian capital will be the most beautiful city in history."

Sally Farrah, a lecturer at the University of Canberra's design and built environment school, said the Griffins had a wonderful understanding of the Canberra landscape, which they had not seen for themselves when they drew the award-winning entry.

"The way that they embedded axes and zones within that certainly has been maintained today," Dr Farrah said.

About 5000 people lived in what is now the ACT when the Griffin plan was gazetted, a move which handed the Parliament power to disallow changes and remains at the core of the city's planning system.

There were times in the 1920s when the capital-building project appeared as if it might be abandoned. Griffin was treated badly at the hands of Australian bureaucrats, but essential qualities of his plan endured.