Novelist seeks advice on Canberra

Friedich, I’d definitely look at the relationship between the public service and Fyshwick’s red light district if you’re looking for political intrigue. There’s been at least one documented case of secret information being passed through a brothel. Maybe you’ll be able to find a realistic scenario for a political kidnapping by researching what’s gone there.

Don’t forget all those secret tunnels under Canberra too Thumper.

Really though, why go for the cliche of an abandoned squatter house for stuffing your kidnap victim in? In Canberra you have SO many more interesting places in which to go all Reservoir Dogs. How about a X-rated DVD editing suite? AXIS is in Fyshwick – it’s a good industrial area. Or we have many fine forests that are spooky, you could even work in snow – couldn’t do that in Sydney or Melbourne. The military settlement near the airport is a interesting location, just keep your victim quiet as the empty buildings out there are filled with zombies who hunger for brain – BRAIN. I also saw a duck there once.

you could also read marion halligan, who sets much of her work here, or david foster’s ‘plumbum’, for works set in canberra.

there is a lot of redevelopment going on in the parliamentary triangle at the moment, too, so abandoned/being-torn-down buildings could offer you a hidey hole option? and remember sitting times – pollies are only here occasionally, so any time markers need to reflect sitting weeks…

don’t forget, if it is to be in canberra, someone will have to be overcharged five dollars for pizza.

If you are looking for abandoned buildings, look for all the schools that were shut down in the last few years. While the schools in Kambah are having work done to them, quite a few others have just been left to rot.

Thanks to all!

The information here is top rate and I think I have enough ideas now to make it work. I already know a little bit about what I’m doing. I’ve been to Canberra twice in the last two years – and both times driven around, talked to some locals etc. Hopefully before the book is printed I’ll have the opportunity to go there again – I’ve always been attracted to Canberra because it seems to epitomize certain aspects of Australia and yet not a lot of authors etc have used it. (Next time I will drive around the areas you mentioned).

This novel is a comical road story set in different Australian locations. The protagonist is a rebellious girl who sets out to challenge every aspect of Australian society (with not much success) but on the way associates with a lot of eccentric people. I would like to think that in Canberra she could find someone crazy enough to want to go in for a political kidnapping and that there would be a place at the edge of town where they could hide out without being noticed. I could tell you more but it might turn you off.

Again thanks to all. You can send more information if you want to, everything has been useful. I liked the pictures of the zoo especially.

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Do you want your story to be believable to an average Australian, or realistic to people who live in or will ever visit Canberra?
Canberra is a pretty wierd place to people from otherwhere.

goose said :

Canberra is the right place if that’s what you are after (Stanhope made it like this)

Hell, Stanhope might even give the writer an Arts Grant to play with to showcase Canberra as the city of his vision!

The “edge of Canberra” is a bit sticky because the city is built around a number of satellites- Gungahlin, Belconnen, Civic, Woden and Tuggeranong- so each of those places has a fringe. Places like Yass, Captains Flat and Cooma are kind of on the edge of Canberra if your “edge” is an hour away.

If you have a political conspiracy bent to your story you’ll need to have your crims near Civic or Woden because that is closest to the Parliamentary Triangle. Your vagabonds could be hanging out in the abandoned flats in Griffith (aka Stab City)

Give us your angle and we can give you better advice.

1. abandoned buildings – possibly but unlikely, and you wouldn’t just stumble on one – might have more luck in the rural area between ACT and snowy mtns (which is actually NSW)
2. Housing estates/public housing – no, not if you are thinking Mt Druitt, as public housing is ‘salt and pepper’ed into the suburb design and there are no ‘estates’ per se. However there are a few ‘low SES’ areas but only one suburb with no public housing which is Forrest. Eg, Kambah has some less well off residents but also has a very swanky area near the golf course.
3. Bikie gangs – until someone was shot recently, no negative profile whatsoever. In fact, they are friendly and even drive about dressed as Santa and distribute sweets at Christmas time, which is cool.

Canberra is totally different from anywhere else, you should come and get the vibe or you won’t write about it convincingly.

squashee said :

Postalgeek – I think you will find Oaks Estate is on the Canberra side of the border. There is no way Queanbeyan wants to claim any part of Oaks Estate. But I’m sure the cops do have a fun time there.

Absolutely correct. My bad. Apologies to Queanbeyan.

Canberra is the right place if that’s what you are after (Stanhope made it like this)

Postalgeek – I think you will find Oaks Estate is on the Canberra side of the border. There is no way Queanbeyan wants to claim any part of Oaks Estate. But I’m sure the cops do have a fun time there.

grunge_hippy said :

dont forget our much beloved causeway. the macquarie fields of canberra.

. . . or Charnwood, the Rosemeadow of Canberra.

I think Oaks Estate deserves a mention, even though it exists on the on the Queanbeyan side of the Canberra/Queanbeyan border. Cops always have a fun time there.

And some people have a short memory. Two members of the Rebel club were murdered in Canberra in March.

There is a kind of forgotten suburb called the Causeway which would probably work. It is next to the train lines and is mostly government housing. Not sure exactly what the people are like there but I am sure you could use artistic license. What always makes it look strange to me is the it seems like it was half built and then abandoned because there are a lot of vacant blocks that have the driveway part of the curb but no house or drive way. If you go to google maps and search for Causeway Canberra and use the street view you will able to see what I mean.

Also at one end of the suburb is a large abandoned warehouse which used to be a PetBarn I think.

Not too far away on Mugga Lane is an burnt out old zoo that could also serve for a location, you can see some pictures here from a story The-RiotACT previously did on it

http://the-riotact.com/?p=8028

Not sure what you mean by the same problems as Melbourne and Sydney, are you trying to work in an Underbelly type of angle? If so in Canberra the biggest trouble spots are public housing blocks that are located in otherwise good areas, Canberra doesn’t really have housing estate suburbs, we mix them in with everyone else. A few places to look up like this would be Stuart Flats, Burnie Court (now demolished), Frasier court (closed down) I am sure some Rioters can suggest some of the other dodgy flats in town.

There is a bikie presence in Canberra and Queanbyan, I know there is a club house in Fyshwick and Wanniassa but because the majority of bikies here are all one particular club (maybe all) you don’t get the bikie war sort of thing happening as much as other places.

Hope this helps and gives you a few ideas.

1) There’s a few around. Best I know is that Inn in Jamison that squatter set fire to.

2) Charnwood is your traditional bet. It’s a suburb on the outskirts of Belconnen that is the product of the failed Radburn design. There’s more about it on wiki. Also, the public housing estates around Braddon and along Northbourne Avenue are well known for drug-addicts and trouble. Oaks Estate and the Causeway (as someone mentioned before) are public housing areas.

3) There’s only one, the Rebels, who pretty much control most of the brothels and other seedy affairs in Mitchell and Fyshwick, two of Canberra’s industrial suburbs.

Your best bet for a location that combines these three elements would most likely be around the Fyshwick/Queanbeyan area. Fyshwick’s a very seedy part of town at night, and Queanbeyan, or Oak’s Estate. Fyshwick’s also reasonably well known around Australia for the XXX porn and the fireworks there (Probably the only other part of Canberra most people know bar the Barton area).

Take a look at those places on Googlemaps (even better, come to Canberra and have a drive around) and good luck with your writing.

Plenty of people will tell you that suburbs like Charnwood and Kambah are rough, but they don’t really deserve their reputation, as they really don’t resemble Sydney’s rougher suburbs in the slightest. Canberra never put enormous quantities of public housing all together, although there was a bit of a glut in Charnwood and Kambah. In these suburbs, even public houses are mostly brick veneer, rather than fibro, although many have a similar front yard appearance to places like Mount Druitt or Green Valley (I only know Sydney, don’t know of an equivalent Melbourne suburb). Small shopping centres are much the same, too. And like the poorer areas of Sydney, middle classes are moving in for cheaper houses, and improving the general appearance of the place.

As for abandoned buildings, no. I think mainly because the city was mostly built in the last 40 years, there isn’t much that’s worth abandoning; what was worth abandoning was close to the centre, and has either been renovated or demolished.

Bikie gangs we have. I know nothing about them, other than that, though.

dont forget our much beloved causeway. the macquarie fields of canberra.

When the Rebels come for Rat Patrol we’ll remember it was all your fault I-filed.

Friedrich the Great, here is some valuable info for your novel!

1. Yes. There’s a dreadful suburb on the fringe of town called Forrest. It largely consists of concrete public housing towers. Some are indeed burnt out.

2. There’s an exceptionally rough area called Griffith/Deakin/Yarralumla. The shopping centre at Griffith is die-hard rough, with brothels and porno flick studios upstairs. No hippies there!

3. Bikie gangs? God yes. Really nasty ones. Biggest home grown bikie gang is Rat Patrol. Their informal headquarters is a really down-at-heel den of iniquity called the Hyatt Hotel, in Parkes, where the beer’s cheap. There’s also a rough bikie pub called Tilleys at the Lyneham Shops. Women hardly dare go there.

meant to add, good luck with the writing, though!

if you’re going to try to set a novel in canberra using such locations, i’d suggest coming here and looking for yourself, or changing ‘canberra’ to ‘c___’, or something…