Telstra Tower from Narrabundah. Photo: Michael Bennett.
Michael Bennett is a confessed “adventurer”.
When we talk, he’s fresh back from three weeks’ holiday in Antarctica, which means his seventh continent is officially in the bag.
It’s the same drive that sent him on mission last year to photograph Telstra Tower from each of the ACT’s 133 suburbs.
A Canberran since the age of two, who started in Weston Creek before migrating further south to where he now lives today in Tuggeranong, Michael realised about seven months ago that he’d visited most of the suburbs but didn’t have anything to show for it.
“But I didn’t know what to point my camera at, until I realised I was seeing the tower from almost every one.”
He’s dubbed the game “124 Views” – on account of the fact he can’t quite see the tower from all 133 suburbs. He usually completes three or four suburbs every weekend and shares the results on his blog, Views of Black Mountain.
“There are some suburbs where I don’t think it’s possible, like Gowrie, Oxley and Chisholm,” he says.
“If I could get access to the right place in Greenway – I’m thinking the top of the Southquay SQ1 building – I could probably see it from the rooftop garden.”
Turns out you can see Telstra Tower from Banks. Photo: Michael Bennett.
He started easy with the Molonglo Valley, but Banks – in what many would regard as the ACT’s deep south – was actually his inspiration.
“The fact that I could see [the tower] from there, I figured out very early that if I can see it from here, I can see it from pretty much anywhere,” he says.
“It was actually one of the lowest points of Banks, too – because there was a road that points straight at it.”
Page was a challenge. Photo: Michael Bennett.
For the ones closest to Black Mountain, he drives to the suburb on the hunt for a high point, while on the tougher ones, he’ll surf Google Earth to map out an angle. Often, it will only be “the tip over distant hills”.
“In Page, I have a terrible photo of it, but that’s all I could get. Aranda was a little hard, too.”
Along the way, he’s been trying to capture the best shot of the tower from within each of the ACT’s districts, as well as something distinctive within each suburb.
“In Crace, there’s this sculpture of a wire-frame fire I really like, and in Macarthur, I keep meaning to go back there and get a clear photo of a cake melting in the rain, which, if you know the song ‘Macarthur Park’, makes sense,” he says.
“In Banks, I’ve got a picture of a dinosaur statue which someone has set up in their yard.”
The dinosaur statue in Banks (don’t worry, he’s tied up). Photo: Michael Bennett.
He can’t rest until he’s taken a photo of at least one magpie in each suburb, too.
“Isaacs was surprisingly hard – I had to drive all over the north side of the suburb looking for them before I finally gave up. I went south to find the tower, and that’s where they all were,” he laughs.
“And I had to go Beard like three times before I saw one.”
Which suburb has the most magpies? That’s easy.
“Narrabundah. There were dozens in the one photo I took, and that’s only half of what was there. I’m pretty sure Narrabundah is where they’re all stored.”
Narrabundah is where all Canberra’s magpies “are stored”, according to Michael Bennett. Photo: Michael Bennett
It’s been suggested that Michael turn the results into a coffee-table photo book, but he’s yet to decide what to do beyond the blog.
But even if the project never becomes a best-seller, it doesn’t matter because it didn’t cost him a cent in petrol.
Michael bought a Hyundai Kona EV in 2019 expressly for the reason it had enough range to get him to Sydney without the need for a top-up. It’s the same here.
“Yeah, I’ve never needed to stop and charge during this project.”
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