An aerial view of East Lake. Many will find the location ideal. Photos: ACT Government.
There is much to be commended in the draft Place Plan for East Lake, but why is the transport hub, including a desperately needed new Canberra railway station, shunted down the road to being a long-term project?
The proposed Railway Precinct will be the heart of the new suburb, its commercial, cultural and transport centre, a multi-modal hub for light and heavy rail, buses and active travel.
It could be the key that unlocks light rail through to Fyshwick and even Queanbeyan, as proposed by the Fyshwick Business Association in Plan developed by Stewart Architecture and unveiled last November.
The light rail plan envisaged the project would be paid for through the uplift in the value of land along a 4 km stretch of the existing rail corridor from the Canberra Railway Station in Kingston to a new transport hub on the edge of Fyshwick.
It is a visionary idea with many working parts and unknowns, but the gist of it relies on securing and using existing corridors, and not just for rail, but cycling and walking as well.
So while some of the development required for the Railway Precinct could wait, the priority should be those corridors and the new station if the government is serious about developing East Lake as a transport-orientated locality.
The government’s indicative land release program shows the first release in 2025-26 of 650 dwellings at the Causeway and, with housing pressures growing, the temptation will be to focus on that at the expense of getting the infrastructure set – an all-too-common problem that residents in new suburbs regularly complain about.
Relocating the railway station would serve several purposes at once – replacing the embarrassment that is the current Canberra terminus, establishing a focal point for East Lake and through that, laying out the links to the city, Fyshwick and Queanbeyan, and hopefully for a faster train journey to Sydney on a renovated line.
The government will no doubt say that the many complexities, including land remediation, of transforming the industrial and former landfill area into what it hopes will be a thriving community, mean some things will have to wait.
A map of the East Lake area showing the four precincts and the rail corridor.
But the risk is that parts of the Plan get shelved, and without giving transport the priority it deserves, what is finally delivered falls short of what could be achieved.
The government is right to say that the growing city needs the public transport infrastructure to meet its needs, but the timeframe for building it seems way too long.
There is momentum for a faster rollout of light rail, as evidenced by the Fyshwick proposal, which fits neatly with the East Lake Plan.
Some imaginative and innovative thinking is required to get things moving, including doing more than one thing at a time.
Canberrans who want to live in the Inner South, close to all it offers and the city, will jump at the opportunity to live in East Lake.
There could be up to 9000 living and 3000 working there, but they will need transport connections, especially if some multi-unit developments limit car parking.
Transport is the first thing the government will need to get right or they will be left stranded or clogging the streets with their cars.
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