Dickson Centre, Australian Capital Territory
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The Dickson Centre, located in the suburb of Dickson, is a group centre in the inner northern suburbs of Canberra.
The centre is the main commercial centre for the inner northern suburbs, after Civic, and is a significant site of employment. A range of businesses, services and community facilities are located there as well as a High School - Daramalan College.
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[edit] Location
Dickson Centre is located 3km north of Civic along Northbourne Aveue at the northern end of the suburb of Dickson. It lies on the southern side of Antill Street and is bounded on the eastern side by Cowper Street.
[edit] Description
Dickson Centre is the largest group centre in Canberra, Australia. It consists of a broad range of civic facilities and business – particularly retail outlets and small offices. The area has many Asian restaurants, take away food outlets and Asian supermarkets, particularly on Woolley Street. The street is often seen as Canberra's chinatown, though it has increasingly a more international focus.
Dickson also consists of a number of large offices at the Northbourne Avenue end, which include Telstra’s regional headquarters, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), TransACT (a local telecommunications company) the ACT Motor Registry and the ACT Planning and Land Authority.
The Centre is characteristic for its lack of an indoor shopping mall. An outdoor pedestrian area with a ‘village square’ feel contains a large number of businesses such as banks, optometrists, cafés and restaurants, retail shops such as newsagents, greengrocers and butchers. This area is the location of the post office and public library. A supermarket is also located in this area.
Other community facilities in the centre include a community health clinic, a church and an ACT Ambulance Service station, which serves the inner northern suburbs. The Dickson Swimming pool and the Dickson playing fields at the eastern end, together with a nearby gym are significant recreational facilities.
The area also has a large number of fast food outlets, two petrol stations, a number of automotive repairers and small offices such as real estate agents and accountants.
The Dickson Tradesman's Union Club, known popularly as the Dickson Tradies or simply The Tradies, is located on Badham street. It is known for its Bicycle Museum and for the trams which have been turned into dining areas. It was known as one of the few clubs in Canberra which was open 24 hours, before the ACT government introduced restrictions which forced it to close in the early hours of the morning. A large club, it has an adjoining hotel, an underground parking garage, several bars, poker machines, pool tables, dining areas, housie room and an internet cafe.
[edit] Transport
Like all Canberra suburbs Dickson Centre is primarily accessed by car. It is located at the corner of two significant roads - Antill Street and Northbourne Avenue. These streets also intersect with Mouat Street, a major route to suburbs in northern Belconnen.
The centre is well served by buses running along Northbourne Avenue to Belconnen and Gungahlin. It is also served by the number 38 bus which travels to Hackett, Watson, Ainslie, and Civic before travelling to Woden Town Centre via Narrabundah. Similarly, the 35 bus runs via Lyneham, O'Connor and Turner before heading to Civic and Narrabundah. Interestingly, the 39 and the 36 run from Watson via Dickson into Civic and beyond, while the 33 meanders through North Lyneham, Lyneham, O'Connor, Turner and Civic on its way to the defence complexes in Campbell, via the Australian War Memorial, Canberra's most popular tourist destination. In contrast, the 48 bus - which originates at Gungahlin cemetery - does not go through Civic, but rather runs across Canberra direct to Belconnen.
[edit] Northbourne Aviation Ground
The area that became Dickson oval and Dickson shops was once an aerodrome in the early history of Canberra. On the side of the Dickson Library is a plaque which marks this, and reads:
- Northbourne Aviation Ground
- This plaque marks the site of Canberra's first aerodrome, which was declared operational on 4 March 1924. The first aviation fatality in the ACT occurred here on 26 February 1926. Aircraft operations continued at this site until November 1926 when they were transferred to a site on the western half of the present Canberra Airport.
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