How did Canberra form?

cantdance said :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canberra_suburbs

Thanks for posting that link.

Makes for some hilarious reading. There’s a suburb planned for Jerrabomberra called ‘Beard’. Oh I’m sure they will just love that.

Beard has been built and is off Canberra Avenue on Norse Road right next to the ACT/NSW border.

ThisIsAName said :

Ages ago I read that “planning” started for GG in the 70s. I’ve got no idea where that was, but ACTPLA has a short history in the 1st few paras of this: http://apps.actpla.act.gov.au/tplan/variatio/dv231/Finalv231.pdf

Looks like the bad design decision for Gungahlin were made at some point in the 80s (Flemington Rd for one) 🙂

One of the google results was this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canberra
There is a brief mention of town centres & a population graph. From a skim read, I couldn’t see much detail as to individual suburbs.

I did an assignment in town planning when I was in high school (finished in ’88). As part of the assignment I researched the planned new town centre of Gungahlin. From what I recall the original NCDC plans were pretty good and would have made Gungahlin just like any of the older areas. One thing I recall was Flemmington Road was meant to have be re-alligned to run directly onto Philip Ave which was meant to be extended around the back of Ainslie to Ainslie Ave in the city. There was also none of the sillyness where a main road runs directly through the centre of the shopping area.

But guess they were the days of Government land development.

breda said :

I worked in the then Dept of the Capital Territory for a short time in 1973, and there were maps of proposed new suburbs floating around, including plans for the “Crace Industrial Estate.” I’m guessing that the expected manufacturing boom and associated demand for industrial land never came about, hence we now have the Crace Housing Estate instead.

Crace changes that.

For only a small crippling morgage, you can get a poorly built house that was incredibly rushed & squeezed into the smallest land space possible.

ThisIsAName said :

Looks like the bad design decision for Gungahlin were made at some point in the 80s (Flemington Rd for one) 🙂

Would you mind elaborating? I’m curious what your objection to Flemington Road is.

Hosinator said :

Just released by the National Film and Sound Archive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42cw_9Fyvqw

I had to chuckle at the “Especially striking blocks of flats only a minute or two away from the main shopping centre”, referring to Bega and Allawah courts.

try this website – http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/tools_resources/maps_land_survey/place_names/place_search –

Canberra’s suburb and street names present an interesting mosaic of Australia’s local and national high achievers, its geography, heritage and history. Some of the people commemorated are well known, whilst others made their mark as quiet achievers. Our Indigenous heritage, Australian geography and history are all drawn together and reflected in the National Capital’s place names.

In 1927, the Canberra National Memorials Committee, in a report to the Federal Parliament on the Naming of Canberra’s Streets and Suburbs, proposed that street names in Canberra’s suburbs follow a theme. This policy (one of the oldest in the ACT) has been followed to this day.

Using this tool, you can find information about the founding colonial days and efforts of latter day heroes. You may also discover a family connection to a person commemorated in our street names.

You can search by suburb, street, gazettal date of the suburb, origin, etc

ainslie and kingston were the first residential suburbs, and the first ACTION buses ran from Ainslie to Kingston via civic. A lot of braddon/reid etc was called ainslie in those days – that is why the ainslie school is in braddon.

there is a fantastic book called Voices of Ainslie about the people who lived in the first houses during the depression – amazing stuff. They had a much worse housing crisis than we are having. Little 3 beddies in Ainslie would have the parents in one room, the married son and wife and toddler in another bedroom, the other married daughter and husband in the last bedroom, and the unmarried sons sleeping in the sleepout – covered verandah, with frost on the blankets. Some kids also went to school with no shoes, and Canberra winters were colder then, with snow once in a while.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7935809?selectedversion=NBD13776010

Antagonist said :

arescarti42 said :

1. The oldest parts of the city are what is now known as the Inner South, I believe Kingston and Manuka were the first commercial areas in the city, probably mostly developed in the 20s and 30s.

My great-grandparents moved from Melbourne to Acton (Leversidge St) in 1924. Acton was well established at this point – having been there for approximately 10 years at that time. At around the same time, there was a small settlement/suburb near the brickworks, which I believe is now submerged beneath LBG.

I recall the real-estate developer by the name of ‘Woodgers’ (Canberra Raiders first sponsor?) appealed against many purchase prices for land in the Kingston/Manuka area in the 1920/30’s. If you do a Google search, you might be able to turn some useful dates up.

5. Tuggeranong was developed during the 1980s.

I first moved to Kambah in the late 1970’s. It was certainly pre-1980.

My family moved into a side street off the south end of Wheeler Crescent in Wanniassa in 1978. We were one of the southernmost houses in Canberra at the time. Wanniassa was most full by then, and Kambah was complete as far as I can remember. Construction started in Monash a couple of years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canberra_suburbs

Thanks for posting that link.

Makes for some hilarious reading. There’s a suburb planned for Jerrabomberra called ‘Beard’. Oh I’m sure they will just love that.

http://www.davesact.com/ is also a great resource. I used it a lot for a unit I wrote for my year 3 class last year on this very subject.

There is a book on display (no borrowing, not even students) at UC Libarry. It’s located near the lift on level B near the TV that displays annoying ads. In it, you will find maps of every suburb in the ACT and when they were built. It is fairly uptodate (it includes Forde and Bonner but I’m not sure about Wright or Coombes).

I can’t remember what the book is called but can get the title off you when I go to UC next week (Wednesday or Thursday I think). If I am feeling rather generous and have the time, I can wrtite out a list of suburbs with their dates and post it here or email it to you if you want. If Wednesyda/Thursday isn’t soon enough, you’ll have to wander there yourself 🙂

There is a book on display in the UC library near the lift on level B which has a map of each suburb with what year they were either planned or built. It has Forde/Bonner in it so fairly recent. I am unsure if it has Wright or Coombes though. When I wander into UC next week, I’ll get the name of the book for you. If I have time and am in a good mood, I might even wright out a list of every suburb with a date. I f you need the info before then though, you’ll need to wander in yourself.

You are unable to borrow the book (even if you are a UC student) but I always have a flick through when I have a spare few minutes there.

Just released by the National Film and Sound Archive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42cw_9Fyvqw

I worked in the then Dept of the Capital Territory for a short time in 1973, and there were maps of proposed new suburbs floating around, including plans for the “Crace Industrial Estate.” I’m guessing that the expected manufacturing boom and associated demand for industrial land never came about, hence we now have the Crace Housing Estate instead.

ACT Bus said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Gungahlin on a bus in 1985? Doubt it. Palmerston wasn’t gazetted until 1991.

Casey and Harrison have been on the roller signs since 1994. Gungahlin was on the signs in the old MAN buses that were delivered in the 70s.

Ages ago I read that “planning” started for GG in the 70s. I’ve got no idea where that was, but ACTPLA has a short history in the 1st few paras of this: http://apps.actpla.act.gov.au/tplan/variatio/dv231/Finalv231.pdf

Looks like the bad design decision for Gungahlin were made at some point in the 80s (Flemington Rd for one) 🙂

One of the google results was this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canberra
There is a brief mention of town centres & a population graph. From a skim read, I couldn’t see much detail as to individual suburbs.

Construction of Woden proper began in 1962 although Hughes was constructed earlier due to its location between Deakin and the Cemetery. Construction on Belconnen began in 1966. Weston Creek was commenced in 1968. Both Tuggeranong and Gungahlin were named as new towns in 1972. Construction of Tuggeranong began in 1973.

In 1975 when I used to ride my bicycle from Chifley to Kambah Pool, the suburbs of Kambah and Wanniassa were partially built with houses and shops being established. Tuggeranong Parkway came to an end at a T-junction where you turned right into Boddington Cres to get to Kambah Pool. Interestingly Marconi Cres (which went left from the T-junction) originally had an Aboriginal name but it was changed to Marconi Cres during the construction phase.

#13 OPH bookshop no longer exists.

ACT Bus said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Gungahlin on a bus in 1985? Doubt it. Palmerston wasn’t gazetted until 1991.

It’s possible. Back in the days where all the buses had the old manual destination signs on the roller, they would order them with the next known planned suburb names on them.

Casey and Harrison have been on the roller signs since 1994. Gungahlin was on the signs in the old MAN buses that were delivered in the 70s.

Well there you go. Thanks for that.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

Just for interest’s sake, Queanbeyan has been around for quite a while, having been settled in the 1820s and proclaimed a township in 1838.

I also note (with a healthy bogan chuckle) that the region prior to Canberra being built was known as ‘Yass-Canberra’ and not ‘Queanbeyan-Canberra’. LOLZ

From memory Oaks Estate came first as it was the closest they could get to the existing train line at Quangers. It was then the base to continue from.

Duffbowl said :

Of course, Google is your friend, and you could have found this in about 3 minutes…

Yes, but the conversation and the company is not as sparkling…

Holden Caulfield said :

Gungahlin on a bus in 1985? Doubt it. Palmerston wasn’t gazetted until 1991.

It’s possible. Back in the days where all the buses had the old manual destination signs on the roller, they would order them with the next known planned suburb names on them.

Casey and Harrison have been on the roller signs since 1994. Gungahlin was on the signs in the old MAN buses that were delivered in the 70s.

ACTPLA also offer a place name lookup on http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/tools_resources/maps_land_survey
This has much of the info that was available in the old book series, and provides gazettal dates for various areas.

And as for the ACT’s future -> http://apps.actpla.act.gov.au/tplan/index.htm

Of course, Google is your friend, and you could have found this in about 3 minutes…

Get yourself this publication if you can…
Canberra’s suburb and street names : origins and meanings; Department of the Environment, Land and Planning.
It *may* still be available through Canberra Connect.

Antagonist said :

At around the same time, there was a small settlement/suburb near the brickworks, which I believe is now submerged beneath LBG..

It was called Westlake, it isn’t under the lake, it was knocked down. There are numerous remains still to be found south of the yacht club.

Old Parliament house bookshop has some good info on early canberra

Antagonist said :

I first moved to Kambah in the late 1970’s. It was certainly pre-1980.

I’m pretty sure my Wanniassa house was built in the 1970’s too. Be interesting to see a timeline and population growth chart for Canberra’s suburbs. Good luck, OP.

Many years ago, back when it was hosted by Chris Uhlmann and David Kilby, the 666 ABC Breakfast program ran some really interesting “history of your suburb” segments once a week. I think they were presented by a town planner – I can’t recall who – but he went into the history of a suburb’s gazettal as well as describing the geographic layout and features of thesuburb from a town planning perspective (parks etc). It was a good little segment. I don’t think they’re available on the ABC website, which is a shame. But you might be able to get your hands on them if you contact the ABC.

arescarti42 said :

1. The oldest parts of the city are what is now known as the Inner South, I believe Kingston and Manuka were the first commercial areas in the city, probably mostly developed in the 20s and 30s.

My great-grandparents moved from Melbourne to Acton (Leversidge St) in 1924. Acton was well established at this point – having been there for approximately 10 years at that time. At around the same time, there was a small settlement/suburb near the brickworks, which I believe is now submerged beneath LBG.

I recall the real-estate developer by the name of ‘Woodgers’ (Canberra Raiders first sponsor?) appealed against many purchase prices for land in the Kingston/Manuka area in the 1920/30’s. If you do a Google search, you might be able to turn some useful dates up.

5. Tuggeranong was developed during the 1980s.

I first moved to Kambah in the late 1970’s. It was certainly pre-1980.

astrojax said :

but then this perfectly good sheep station was rooned instead of ruining dalgety, which would have been much colder… can you imagine anyone going to brumbies game at bruce in -7 and snow?

Coffs Harbour (one of the other candidates) would have been alright, though. I presume the Melbournians scuttled that one.

Hmm,
Is someone doing their kids year 5 research project for them?

astrojax said :

can you imagine anyone going to brumbies game at bruce in -7 and snow?

Lots of European, North Asian and North American capital cities seem to manage it for their winter sports. Are their Bruce Stadiums heated?

in the beginning there was a perfectly good sheep station.

well, with respect to the gnunnawal, in the beginning was the dreaming [then the portuguese, dutch, english, french, etc and eventually captain cook…]

but then this perfectly good sheep station was rooned instead of ruining dalgety, which would have been much colder… can you imagine anyone going to brumbies game at bruce in -7 and snow?

Just for interest’s sake, Queanbeyan has been around for quite a while, having been settled in the 1820s and proclaimed a township in 1838.

I remember learning to drive back in 1991 and trundling around the streets of Jerrabomberra, very few of which has houses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canberra_suburbs

Is the only list I’m familiar with, a lot of those entries have dates.

I always thought the oldest suburbs in Gungahlin were established in the early 1990s.

As for how the entirety of the city developed, my understanding is as follows:

1. The oldest parts of the city are what is now known as the Inner South, I believe Kingston and Manuka were the first commercial areas in the city, probably mostly developed in the 20s and 30s.
2. Civic and the inner north were developed after the Inner South, probably in the 1940s and 50s.
3. The Woden Valley was the first satellite, developed through the 1960s.
4. Belconnen and Weston Creek were developed after Woden, probably late 60s to late 70s.
5. Tuggeranong was developed during the 1980s.
6. Gungahlin from 1990s to present.
7. The short and medium term future will see continued development in Gungahlin, and establishment and development of the Molonglo region.

Gungahlin on a bus in 1985? Doubt it. Palmerston wasn’t gazetted until 1991.

Anyway, it’s a good question you ask. Hopefully we get a better answer than can be gained from the link I gave above.