Sign of the times … at least until 2026. Photo: Josip Sladic, Canberra Notice Board Group, Facebook.
Splendid nostalgia doing the rounds this week with news that the ACT Government and Telstra will join forces to get that Tower back up where she belongs.
People took to talkback radio to reminisce about how hard it was to be a waiter in its revolving restaurant when you took an order only to come back later to find your table had moved.
Others took umbrage at the brave soul who dared call it an eyesore. Some wondered what happened to that grand plan to build a cable car up there. Then there was the talk about it being a giant needle and that people who used those pointy things when they shouldn’t, congregated there.
Whatever you think of the place, there’s no denying it is so quintessentially Canberran. Just mention it in passing, on social media, over the back fence, and there’ll be opinion, good, bad and straight-out weird. But sentimentally, it was the sight people looked for, driving along the Federal Highway, that meant they were nearing “home”.
Before it rises again to become our tourism beacon, there are a couple of things to sort out. Like whether, in fact, it is an alien structure – alien in the good, spooky sense – where little green people met to discuss the meaning of the (after)life. This clearly accounts for the fact that there was always an issue with cars’ central locking systems up there – the issue being that they often didn’t work. The official word was that it was caused by EMFs (Electromagentic Fields) but we reckon it was aliens.
We hear the plan is to revitalise the place with a café, retail space and observation deck and that, if all goes according to plan, it will be open by 2026. Whether the revolving restaurant will make a welcome return is still to be decided. Debate is going round in circles.
An artist’s impression of the Telstra Tower podium with cafe and observation deck – here’s hoping the cracker eggshell-like seats stay. Photo: Architectus.
Here’s hoping, too, that it regains its status as the place to go in Canberra when it comes to celebrating the biggest of occasions. Such lovely stories surfaced this week of people being proposed to there, marking big birthdays or just because. Yes, the restaurant was expensive, but, for heaven’s sake, the thing actually moved – and that doesn’t come cheap.
Two years ago, Region asked Canberrans what they wanted Telstra Tower to become.
As well as such helpful suggestions as a bungee jump to rival whatever New Zealand had to offer, they included a restaurant with arches; a flying fox that could take on Superman when it came to leaps and bounds; or a home for retired Telstra executives.
The common thread, as is so relevant with such a needle, was for it to be “something”. Not an eyesore, not something that used to be something else, but something that not only would bring visitors to the nation’s capital, but would make locals proud – and maybe even a little dizzy.
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