Lack of cafes on Canberra lakes

Lake G and Lake T both have Maccas Restaurants on their shores.

Well the Lake G Maccas is a bit off to one side but it compensates by having HJ’s.

You can actually sit by Lake Ginnenderra and have a coffee, tapas, beer, pizza or cocktail by frequenting Ha Ha bar, the Light House, Bella Vista or one of the noodle bars.

You’ve clearly never spent time down at the lake in the winter time. Sure, it’s not Chicago but when it’s relatively icy and windy for 6 months of the year who wants to sit near the stinking lakes sipping coffee .. go for a run, yes, sit on my backside .. sadly no.

I never understood why the Hyperdome was built further back and the college was built right on the lake. If you’ve been shopping and decide to stop for lunch or coffee the choices are the food court or the road, or the fast food franchises down by the lake which means either walking through that strange deserted gazebo alley or driving. There’s quite a variety of food outlets when you think about it, but none of them are really well located to both take advantage of a scenic indoor/outdoor location and be convenient for shoppers and visitors to the area.

I’ve always wondered why this is not the case as well.

Plenty of of nice quiet spots for cafes around the lake, if the success of the rather slow to deliver brodburger is possible then I think any cafe by the lake would have a good chance of doing well. Even in winter people walk around the lake.

ignatieff said :

Cafes and restaurants need a close resident population to sustain them. With Belconnen and Tuggeranong, it is poor town planning. Although Belconnen seems to be getting better at this.

I beg to differ. The cafes in the national library and galleries are a perfect counterexample. On the weekend they are bursting with people, not all visitors of the institutions that host them, especially in case of the library.

Also, if you look at most European countries, in comparison, you would notice how the lakes are always host to cafes and restaurants, even if the cities are far away (say 20km and more); despite the distances, people like to travel and enjoy their meals and coffees in the proximity of nature, away from the fumes, and near water. I see no reason why the same wouldn’t be true in Canberra.

And like I said, go to the national library on a sunny day and look at the line up at the counter, if you don’t believe me.

Keijidosha said :

There are two main reasons we don’t have cafes around our lakes.
1) Bitter Canberra winters

You should venture beyond the 40? parallels sometime.

The Jetty Cafe might be good.

Closed Sundays which sucks but it looks promising.

enrique said :

ignatieff said :

Cafes and restaurants need a close resident population to sustain them. … & …poor town planning.

Hit the nail on the head with those two.

The old codgers that implemented the plans probably had some grandiose idea that a capital city should be all avenues, tall orderly trees and picturesque lakes that people looked from afar and visiting foreign dignitaries could marvel at from their chauffeur driven cars. They were probably trying to mimic other major foreign capitals and went a little OTT.

Letting the real citizens get up and close and build actual useful urban infrastructure around those pretty areas would detract from their beauty – yuck – who wants to show off our actual people enjoying their own town to other countries?!

Actually its purely economic. The Lake is too far for consumers from the hyperdome. There’s more than enough of a population to support a mega shopping mall. The Tuggeranong foreshore is actually quite stocked with retail opportunities and was redeveloped/ landscaped extensively in the late 90’s. If you don’t consider a college, a public library an arts centre and numerous park and recreation spaces enough “good infrastructure” then I’m not sure what you’re after. The foreshore unfortunately hasn’t taken off and has deteriorated significantly for the reason above – the hyperdome.

There are two main reasons we don’t have cafes around our lakes.
1) Bitter Canberra winters
2) Incompetent town planners/government

The latter point could not be more evident when you look at Emu Bank in Belconnen. Someone planned and built a lovely pedestrian boulevard alongside the lake – which leads from nowhere to nowhere, and the buildings that face it have little/no pedestrian access. The resulting lack of foot traffic renders a lot of retail space useless, and therefore permanently vacant.

A far better idea would have been to build a pedestrian boulevard alongside the lake, with a single lane shared road and kerbside parking between it and any buildings. This would promote traffic (especially in the colder months) past lakeside retail businesses.

At the moment you can drive along Emu Bank without a clue what might be alongside the lake.

Is “The Aft” cafe nolonger there in Tuggers (Back of the arts building near-ish KFC)? Used to do some pretty acceptable food too. Good view of lake.

Crappy restrictions on building, would be my guess.

The cafe spaces recently built on Emu Bank facing the lake are in a lovely spot – morning sun & a nice vista… two things incredibly rare for eateries in Canberra.

Sadly they are hidden behind other retail shops that face the street – last I looked they were all empty (except the bike shop) and being vandalised.

ignatieff said :

Cafes and restaurants need a close resident population to sustain them. … & …poor town planning.

Hit the nail on the head with those two.

The old codgers that implemented the plans probably had some grandiose idea that a capital city should be all avenues, tall orderly trees and picturesque lakes that people looked from afar and visiting foreign dignitaries could marvel at from their chauffeur driven cars. They were probably trying to mimic other major foreign capitals and went a little OTT.

Letting the real citizens get up and close and build actual useful urban infrastructure around those pretty areas would detract from their beauty – yuck – who wants to show off our actual people enjoying their own town to other countries?!

There used to be a cafe on the top floor of the Arts Centre in Tuggeranong, with a nice view (away from the buildings over the lake), but last time I was there it had closed.

Cafes and restaurants need a close resident population to sustain them. With Belconnen and Tuggeranong, it is poor town planning. Although Belconnen seems to be getting better at this.

With LBG, it is the National Capital Plan and its reluctance to allow residential development anywhere near the lake. Kingston Foreshore is on the right track, but really, the lake is pretty quiet once the sun goes down.

But you’re forgetting the cafe at Regatta point!
http://the-riotact.com/disappointing-regatta-point-cafe/9995
http://the-riotact.com/the-deck-regatta-point-its-not-me-its-you/56449

Hahahaha!

Because half the time the lakes smell worse than the diesel fumes