Canberra has an insane density of cultural institutions per head of populace. It is a heavily planned city that was literally designed to be the centre of a new age of global enlightenment, there isn't a word of hyperbole there, that is what burley griffin literally wrote.

The commonwealth funded massive amounts of parks and institutions, far more than the city could afford itself, and then on top of that the city itself also insanely rich. Canberrans have the highest average incomes and highest average level of education in Australia, and Australia isn't exactly poor or uneducated to begin with.

People say its empty, but thats because its designed to be spacious and uncrowded, like walking through a giant manicured garden. People say its boring, but with the sheer numbers of galleries, museums, parks and gardens you could be wandering around admiring things for weeks on end. If you add to that the massively disproportionate number of festivals and events, you could find something new to occupy you pretty much year round.

The other biggest misunderstanding about canberra is that it is small. No other city in Australia has the state boundaries 5 km from the centre of the city. If you actually counted up all the people within 2 hours drive of Canberra, it would literally be bigger than Adelaide. There are so many small communities in each direction that there are actually millions of people who consider Canberra their nearest capital city.