Suburbs of Canberra

The suburbs of Canberra are organised into a hierarchy of districts, town centres, group centres, local suburbs and other industrial areas and villages. While these divisions have no formal role in the governance or administration of the city, they formed a basis for the planning and development of the city and are significant to the city’s commercial and social activities.

For a complete list, see List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs

Most suburbs of Canberra are designed around local shops, centrally located within walking distance of the outer parts of the suburb. Consequently they are generally smaller in size to the suburbs of other cities. A typical Canberra suburb is bounded on all sides by major roads, and at the centre, contains local shops, or at least a local store. Some also contain a petrol station, a church, or other community facilities. Many also contain a primary school and a preschool.

As a result of these commercial and community facilities being located in the centre of suburbs, Canberra lacks strip shopping along major roads and appears to be ‘empty’ to most visitors. In the older areas, major roads are lined with houses, and in the newer areas they are typically landscaped with mounds of earth and vegetation to form ‘parkways’.

Districts

Canberra’s residential districts were developed with the intention of being semi-self-contained satellite towns with an intended population of about 80,000 people. The districts contain town centres which serve as commercial, transport and employment nodes. The districts are separated by nature reserves, and in most cases were designed according to a policy of ridges and valleys where the urban areas were located in valleys, separated by ridges, containing nature parks. There are seven districts in Canberra, each is divided into between eight and 25 suburbs, but on average about eighteen. Canberra’s Territory Plan also contains districts located outside of the urban areas for the purposes of land administration.^[1]

Following the transfer of land from the Government of New South Wales to the Commonwealth Government in 1911, eighteen original districts were established in 1966 by the Commonwealth via the gazettal of the Districts Ordinance 1966 No. 5 (Cth) which, after the enactment of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth), became the Districts Act 1966 No. 5 (ACT). This Act was subsequently repealed by the ACT Government and all districts and the land contained within are now administered subject to the Districts Act 2002 (ACT).^[1]

In chronological order of mass residential development, the districts are:

Selected historical data for the districts of Canberra
Districts		Gazettal date	First settled	Number of suburbs	Estimated residents at census
					2001		2006		2011
Canberra Central	North Canberra	12 May 1966[1]	1928	25	39,438	[2]	42,113	[3]	48,030	[4]
	South Canberra		1927		24,139	[5]	23,668	[6]	24,154	[7]
Woden Valley			1963	12	31,336	[8]	31,992	[9]	32,958	[10]
Belconnen			1967	25	81,701	[11]	84,382	[12]	92,444	[13]
Weston Creek			1969	8	22,338	[14]	22,127	[15]	22,746	[16]
Tuggeranong			1974	18	89,386	[8]	87,119	[17]	86,900	[18]
Gungahlin			1991	18	23,098	[19]	31,318	[20]	46,971	[21]
Molonglo Valley		14 October 2010[22]	2010	13 planned	–		–		27	[23]
Selected historical data for the remaining districts of the Australian Capital Territory
Districts		Gazettal date	First settled	Number of suburbs	Estimated residents at census
					2001		2006		2011
Booth		12 May 1966[1]
Coree
Cotter River
Hall
Jerrabomberra
Kowen
Majura
Mount Clear
Paddys River
Rendezvous Creek
Stromlo
Tennent

The City Centre

Canberra's central business district, also known as Civic, is the main commercial centre in Canberra. It is larger than the town centres and contains many Australian Government department offices, large office buildings and retail outlets such as department stores and specialty stores and recreational facilities such as cinemas, bars, nightclubs, restaurants and theatres. The Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly is contained within its boundaries; as is the Canberra Theatre and Playhouse, Territory Courts, and the Federal Court.

Town centres

Outside Canberra's central business district, there are five town centres within Canberra. As well as serving as commercial nodes, town centres also serve as centres of employment. Most contain at least one major Australia government department. For example:

• Belconnen Town Centre contains the head office of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Bureau of Statistics;
• Tuggeranong Town Centre contains the head office of the Department of Social Services; and
• Woden Town Centre contains the head office of the Department of Health.

As of 2013, neither the Weston Creek Centre nor the Gungahlin Town Centre contain any substantive Australian government department head office.

Town centres also provide services such as mechanical workshops, gyms, pubs and clubs, cinemas, restaurants and fast food outlets, petrol stations and car dealerships. They also usually contain a public library, police station and a community centre. The Woden Town Centre has high rise office buildings and resembles a ‘mini city centre’.

Group centres

Group centres are commercial and community centres smaller than town centres but larger than local shops which are designed to serve a "group" of suburbs – typically about four or five. A typical group centre contains such local commercial facilities such as a supermarket, a petrol station, specialty stores such as a pharmacy, hairdresser, butcher, video store, baker, deli, health food store, betting agency and medical centre. Some larger group centres may also contain banks, a few restaurants and fast food outlets. They will typically also contain recreational and social facilities such as a swimming pool, church, and a tavern or club. These are intended to provide "weekly shopping" type services to the residents of adjoining suburbs.

Industrial areas

The suburbs of Mitchell, Fyshwick and Hume are Canberra’s industrial areas and are located away from residential suburbs. While they are the location of light industry (Canberra has no heavy industries), they also contain a large number of retail outlets such as furniture stores, hardware stores, car dealerships, bicycle shops, camping stores and wholesale outlets.

Villages

The Australian Capital Territory also contains a number of smaller villages located outside the urban area. Historically some of these are farming or forestry villages and some were damaged or destroyed in the fires of January 2003. The village closest to the urban area is Hall which is located just past Belconnen near the New South Wales border.

See also

• Canberra

References

Suburbs and localities in Belconnen Aranda Belconnen Bruce Charnwood Cook Dunlop Emu Ridge Evatt Florey Flynn Fraser Giralang Hawker Higgins Holt Kaleen Latham Lawson Macgregor Macquarie McKellar Melba Page Scullin Spence Weetangera Town Centre Belconnen Town Centre Group Centres Charnwood Hawker Jamison Kaleen Kippax Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs in Gungahlin Amaroo Bonner Casey Crace Forde Franklin Gungahlin Harrison Jacka Kenny Kinlyside Mitchell Moncrieff Ngunnawal Nicholls Palmerston Taylor Throsby Town Centre Gungahlin Town Centre Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs in Molonglo Valley Coombs Denman Prospect Molonglo Sulman Wright Group Centres Molonglo Centre Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs and localities in North Canberra Acton Ainslie Braddon Campbell City Dickson Downer Duntroon Hackett Lyneham O'Connor Parkes Reid Russell Turner Watson City Centre City Group Centres Dickson Centre Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs in South Canberra Barton Capital Hill Deakin Forrest Fyshwick Griffith Kingston Narrabundah Parkes Pialligo Red Hill Symonston Yarralumla Group Centres Kingston Manuka Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs in Tuggeranong Banks Bonython Calwell Chisholm Conder Fadden Gilmore Gordon Gowrie Greenway Hume Isabella Plains Kambah Macarthur Monash Oxley Richardson Theodore Wanniassa Town Centre Tuggeranong Town Centre Group Centres Calwell Chisholm Conder Erindale Centre Kambah Village Centre Wanniassa Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs in Weston Creek Chapman Duffy Fisher Holder Rivett Stirling Waramanga Weston Group Centre Weston Creek Centre Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs

Suburbs and localities in Woden Valley Chifley Curtin Garran Hughes Farrer Isaacs Lyons Mawson O'Malley Pearce Phillip Swinger Hill Torrens Town Centre Woden Town Centre Group Centres Curtin Centre Southlands Centre Districts in Canberra Belconnen Booth Canberra Central (including North and South Canberra) Coree Cotter River Gungahlin Hall Jerrabomberra Kowen Majura Molonglo Valley Mount Clear Paddys River Rendezvous Creek Stromlo Tennent Tuggeranong Weston Creek Woden Valley See also Suburbs of Canberra List of Canberra suburbs