Ask RiotACT: Chapman or Farrer?

Both suburbs good, for secondary school I would lean towards Stromlo as Melrose has not always had the best rep. Don’t have up to date experience with them though, sorry!

One other consideration is town centers. Canberra is built so that each broader area (tuggeranong, woden, weston, civic, belconnen, etc) act as hubs with a major shopping Centre, with several satellite suburbs each with much smaller shops that might have a cafe, chemist or IGA.

Farrer has a pretty good small shops with lovely cafe as mentioned. It’s also somewhat between Woden and Tuggeranong town centers, which are both large malls, with many shops, many restaurants, many services. Both with semi-industrial shopping streets surrounding them.

Tuggeranong has a huge Bunnings, both have movie theatres, you’ve got several Coles and Woolies around you. Farrer is also very close to Mawson, which (unusually for a satellite suburb) has its own Woolies as well as a large variety of other shops such as hairdressers, cafes, takeaways, bakeries, butchers, bookshops etc. Mawson is actually my favourite shops, and I know a lot of people who go out of their way for the Woolworths there – onsite bakery, fresh fruit, veg and meat is very high quality.

On the other hand, Chapman is close to the Weston town Centre (Cooleman Court) which is a little more like a rural shopping mall, much smaller than the others, but still a decent size with a Woolies and Aldi, many cafes, shops and service stations. It’s also only a 15min drive from Woden, and not much further to Tuggeranong.

So pretty much everything in Canberra is not very far away! I myself find that my local shops and my shopping habits influence my lifestyle. Think about whether you want to be in walking distance, whether you’re looking for local cafes during the week or on a weekend, whether your school age kids want to be closer to bigger shopping centers, where the bus routes are and what your interests are. Farrer is closer to the inter town bus route, Weston has never been great on buses and is currently in public contention for the new proposed routes.

Farrer would be my choice, but Chapman is lovely too! Farrer is also VERY hilly in some areas so depending which street you’re looking at, walking may not be a pleasant stroll 😅

Any driving in Canberra is better than any of the other capital city. I have no connections with schools anywhere so can’t comment.

Ben Anderson can you help on commute times? cc Ben Johnson

Both have wonderful schools and have similar driving times to civic. You probably encounter a little more traffic from Farrer to the city but not significant. Both are lovely suburbs.

Farrer Primary is a brilliant school, great community, excellent teachers. The commute to the city is 15 mins from Farrer sometimes a little more but everything is easy in this town! Best cafe Fox and Bow at the local shops. Highly recommend Farrer.

Chapman and Arawang ( Waramanga ) and Farrer all excellent Primary Schools.
My youngest son currently at Arawang and he couldnt be any happier.
I have professional association with both of the local Highschools – Mt Stromlo closest to Chapman and Melrose closest to Farrer. Both of these highschools have very good reputations and there are excellent teachers at both. The students that I work with in the senior secondary setting ( year 11 and 12) from both of these schools are really great young adults 🙂

I bought a house in Farrer for the primary school. We’re still very happy with our decision.