One structure built at this time was the Royal Exhibition Building (1880) in Melbourne. This was one of Australia's first attempts at creating a style their own, although in reality this building was just a combination of other styles. None-the-less, it created creativity and a new direction in the country's architecture.
In about 1900 Australia began to toy with the idea of creating their own architectural style, just as they were also creating an independent identity and independence movements were gaining momentum. They started this new style, which was called the Federation Style. As this style was rising in prominence so too was the city of Canberra, giving the present capital the most buildings with these designs. Many houses were built in the style as they are noted for their flat roofs and construction from primarily concrete. The Federation Style also spread to Melbourne and Sydney, but to a much lesser degree. In Sydney only the Castlecrag is a notable landmark in the style.
After World War II ended, the architecture in Australia truly changed. Prior to this the country, like much of the world, struggled economically, making large construction projects rare. By 1950 the economy had recovered and most Australian cities lifted their ban on tall structures, leading to the age of the sky scraper in Australia.
Sky scrapers not only built cities up, they also urbanized many places and population densities rose. Despite this, most people still preferred land and a private yard, so the construction of sky scrapers was a slow process that didn't peak until the late 1900s. Sydney led the way and still built a huge number of sky scrapers in these early years, most of which were office buildings.
The construction of sky scrapers also shifted Australia's architectural inspiration from Britain and Europe to the United States. While the United States may have been the leading architectural inspiration in the 1900s, today Australia is again forming their own path forward and is trying more and more to incorporate ideas, structure, and styles that represent Australia, their culture, and their weather into their buildings.
This modernist and post-modernist approach has made more recent Australian architecture fairly unique as they have constructed buildings that represent their culture or their landscape and setting. This has come from both local architects as well as from international architects. The most famous of the country's buildings is the Sydney Opera House (1973), which was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, but is truly representative of Australia and Sydney's waterfront.