Best of Canberra - Lookouts

Best for me has got to be Dairy Farmers Hill. Views down the Arboretum towards the lake and back into the city are awesome. Then the view of the Brindabellas directly behind. An awesome place for a quiet beer on the ride home after work.

+1 for Mt Pleasant, it’s a good and lesser known spot to view Canberra from. Although, some of the trees are getting a bit too tall now and intruding in on the view.

It’s pretty hard to go past Mt Ainslie though, but for the purposes of offering another option I’ll also nominate Red Hill, but not at the kiosk, walk up to the trig point about 1km away from the car park. It’s a nice walk that’s not too onerous and offers a pretty good view across the eastern side of the city and great views over Woden and the Brindabellas.

Back in the day it was always good when you could park pretty much right in front of Parliament House and walk up the hill to admire the view towards Civic from under the flag pole. Now you can’t do that without walking through the building and being security checked. Kinda kills the mood, haha.

Depending on how much of town you want to see at once – pretty much anything with Mount in the name. Mounts Pleasant, Painter, Taylor, Soldier, Spy .. Mount Majura – ride/walk up and do a couple of chin-ups on the trig point. Or as you’re travelling on the Centenary Trail just west / downhill from it there’s a clearing on a rise which is pleasant enough at sunset.

Or, again on the Centenary Trail in the Forde-Hall section is One Tree Hill from where you can gaze upon high to the majesty of / pit of despair called Gungahlin. (At least they have NBN Fibre.)

Gubur Dhaura Heritage Park (that’s what gmaps says it’s called) is a cute hill if you’re passing nearby.