Still Calling Canberra Home

They’ve travelled, lived and worked around the globe. But somehow, these three women find Canberra’s siren song impossible to resist.

Anneliese Seubert

Born in Bavaria, raised in Cooma, educated in Canberra then whisked up in a whirlwind career as a bona fide supermodel, Anneliese Seubert has come full circle.

The woman who can claim one of the most successful careers of any Australian model— working during the 1990s for the likes of Dior, Gucci, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Hermès and appearing in Vogue magazines from one end of the globe to the other—has been happily settled in Canberra for the past few years.

You’d think that having lived in Paris for six years, New York for another six and travelling to 45 different countries to shoot in all manner of exotic locations, Canberra may not have been on the final destination manifesto for the statuesque brunette.

But love lured her back.

Anneliese agreed to a blind date almost 10 years ago, orchestrated by her cousin. Robbie was a public servant with no interest in high fashion. He’d never heard of her. She loved that about him.

Together they share a home in the Inner South and are contentedly raising two beautiful daughters, Camille, 5, and Avery, 3.

“Canberra really suits us. It is close to the beach, close to the snow, close to my mum, and at this stage of our lives we are really happy here.”

Anneliese still travels regularly for bookings interstate. But otherwise you will find her with the girls, in the park, or catching a quick minute to herself to sip a peppermint tea.

The latter is an ironic choice of beverage given Australia’s superior coffee culture was one of the things which brought her home after more than a decade in front of the camera for the likes of Mario Testino and Patrick Demarchelier.

“After six years in New York, I was really homesick. Everything about America was starting to annoy me. I found myself complaining a lot. About everything—including the coffee—and I decided to move back to Australia.”

For their first year living together Anneliese and Robbie were based in Gundaroo—providing an almost comical counterpoint to life with the jet-set.

“Yeah, it was pretty quiet. The dog got walked a lot,” she laughs.

Yet Anneliese seems genuinely content. She now focuses on the minutiae of organising two little people through each day.

Canberra is a really easy city to live in. Especially once you have children."

Part of Canberra’s appeal is its winter—and proximity to the snowfields. Raised in Cooma, Anneliese has always been a keen skier, and the girls are following in her tracks.

“Canberra is a really easy city to live in. Especially once you have children. I am really settled and happy here. I think it allows me to raise the girls with more freedom and responsibility as it is a safe place for them and I don’t need to hover over them every minute of the day.”

She may have been in the public eye since she was picked as a finalist in the Dolly Covergirl competition while a 15-yearold boarder at Canberra Girls Grammar School, but Anneliese is just as happy leading a fairly anonymous Canberra existence. There is comfort in the steady rhythms of being a mum and partner.

“It is fun to work, but it is always pretty busy at home too. I love spending time with the girls, reading, yoga, cooking, you know, just average stuff.

“I feel really blessed to be here.”

Jane O'Dwyer

It was our federal parliament that lured Jane O'Dwyer from one side of Australia to the other and our Australian National University that has kept her here.

But in between those two monumental institutions is a love for ordinary Canberra—the golden afternoon hour on Mount Ainslie, snow on the Brindabellas, kangaroos in the driveway—that make Jane believe she will always return. No matter what.

The newly announced Vice-President of Engagement and Corporate Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU) has come a considerable distance since she first alighted the plane from Perth in 1997, bound for the office of a Labor frontbencher.

But a life of international postings and relentless relocations was pretty much assured when she met Marco Salvio, a graduate bound for a career within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Within a few short years of falling in love at an Australian Republican Movement fundraiser at Tilley’s, Marco was posted to Tokyo and Jane took a leap of faith to quit her job and follow him. He proposed en route at Singapore’s Raffles Hotel.

Not content to be simply a diplomatic spouse, Jane launched herself into a Masters in Journalism, studying Japanese at Sophia University, and then joining the English edition of Japan’s largest newspaper as a staff writer.

When the couple returned in 2005, Jane accepted a position at the ANU and began rising through the ranks. But within a few years, an overseas adventure called again, this time a dual posting to Washington—where Jane established an ANU office at the Australian Embassy. Then it was back to Australia before Marco was posted to Rome as Deputy Head of Mission.

“I took long service leave and lost myself in the eternal city, while hosting a non-stop parade of friends who came to stay.”

They’ve been back two years now, and Jane’s new appointment will make it harder to uproot in the future. But that’s not the only reason. Despite her West Australian blood, Jane pretty much fell in love with the national capital the minute she laid eyes on it.

“There is no city in the world like this. It’s crammed full of smart people with a large proportion dedicated to contribution to our nation, to research and to education. We are surrounded by a stunning natural environment and have our pick of all the wonderful things a capital city offers but in a setting like no other.”

She also describes connecting with the community—recalling an epiphany one night at a political staffer’s group house when she was surrounded by “young political staffers, academics and newly-minted public servants. Everyone there was smart, engaged in the world around them, interested in understanding and wanting to be a part of it all. I felt like I had found my tribe.”

Now her tribe is even smarter.

“Every day I arrive on campus feels like such an enormous treat. ANU is a really special place—it’s incredibly open and stimulating to be part of the community here. I don’t know any other place where you work alongside 75-year-old professors who have changed our nation and 17-years-olds who will change our nation.”

Not that Jane isn’t thankful for the extraordinary privilege of diplomatic life.

“The moment you get to the airport on your way to posting is the most amazing feeling. I always feel a strange mixture of peace and excitement. The lead up is exhausting—packing, working through the long DFAT posting manual and filling out all appropriate forms, saying too many farewells, wondering what life will be like in another place, trying to learn a new language.

“The first three months are always fabulous, then reality kicks in and you go through the usual culture shock and adjustment that comes with making a new home and settling into a routine. You then go through exactly the same thing in reverse coming home.”

But juggling two careers is increasingly a challenge.

“I think it is getting more difficult for DFAT as women rise up the ranks and have to ask their partners to sacrifice careers or job security, and more DFAT officers have spouses who equally value their own careers.”

When asked where she sees herself in five years Jane says “as an even more rusted-on Canberran! Hopefully still at ANU but likely getting ready for our next overseas adventure…”

And further down the track? She hopes to find herself “Back in Ainslie, probably wondering where the last decade went.”

Anthea Roberts

The pursuit of a careen in law took Anthea Roberts from her home town before she had even completed her degree–she was one os ANU's first exchange students to Oxford University in her third year.

There was a quick return home to complete her degree and graduate, after which she spent a year working for Chief Justice Gleeson at the High Court of Australia where she met her future husband, Jesse Clarke, who was working for Justice Kirby.

They were then off again. This time Anthea headed to New York University’s School of Law for her Masters with a specialty in international law. Jesse, also an international lawyer, headed to Cambridge University to do his Masters before joining Anthea in New York.

Anthea spent a summer working at the International Court of Justice in The Hague before joining one of the big international law firms Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, spending five years working for them in New York and then in London. From there, she took up a lectureship in international law at the London School of Economics before she received an invitation from Harvard Law School to be a Visiting Professor for a year.

“That sounded exciting and I said ‘yes’…but then I fell pregnant with our first child, so we decided to spend my maternity leave back in Canberra. I was homesick.”

After being away from Canberra for eight years, Jesse and Anthea relished returning to the city in which they had met.

“I remember how incredibly sad I was leaving Canberra at the end of my maternity leave. My family is definitely the number one thing I miss when I am away. My parents still live in the same house that I grew up in in Cook which backs onto the reserve. Every time I visit them and see the mountain view, I feel happy and at peace.”

But Harvard was waiting and the family of three set off—including nine-month-old Ashley Roberts-Clarke.

People tease me about how much I love Canberra."

At the end of the year at Harvard, Jesse (who is a dual Australian/UK national) was selected as one of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office lawyers to be posted to the UK’s Mission to the United Nations.

“So, we picked up again and headed back to New York and I was given a Visiting Professorship at Columbia Law School. We stayed in the US for almost five years this time.”

By the time they returned in January last year, they were also bringing their newest addition— Freya—who was six months old at the time.

Their return was just in time for Ashley to start Kindergarten, Freya to start daycare, Anthea to take up a research position at RegNet at ANU and Jesse to start work at the Office of International Law in the Attorney General’s Department.

Now happily settled in Narrabundah, the family has many favourite Canberra things to do.

“We love getting breakfast and tarts from Silo in Kingston and our girls like getting milkshakes from Bittersweet in Kingston or white hot chocolates from Urban Pantry in Manuka. When we come back from the US, we are always really pleased to have good Australian coffee again! When we come back from Europe, we always really appreciate the great Asian food that we have here.”

And having traded in the Big Apple and Big Ben for something decidedly more sedate, Anthea is happily soaking up the Bush Capital.

“I love walking up and over Red Hill at sunrise or sunset and seeing all the kangaroos. At certain points, you can see bushland and kangaroos in the foreground and Parliament House in the background. I can’t imagine that being true of many capitals, even leaving aside the kangaroos. I think it is just lovely.”

She also notices Canberra’s ease and quality of life.

“It is a much less stressful city to live in than New York and London. The commutes are really good and the public schools are great.”

But Anthea admits her fervor for the city sometimes elicits disbelief.

“People tease me about how much I love Canberra. When I was in New York and London, people would always say ‘oh, you are so lucky to live there!’. And that was true. No one says the equivalent to me about Canberra, yet I just adore it.

“Part of it is surely that it is home. But another part of it is Canberra’s unique ability to mix some of the advantages of a big city—government work, a good university, great restaurants and cafes—with the feeling of a small town.”

Words: Emma Macdonald