Talk:Canberra

see also: Talk:Canberra/Archive

Suggestions to add

Hi I would like to add a couple of things, but I don't know the details of them so if someone comes along and knows them can you consider these suggestions:

- If you have a care or are are able to hire one, there is a really beautiful scenic drive below tuggeranong and out to where the observatory and the dam. The bushfires of a couple of years ago have dramatically altered the landscape but it's still really beautiful.
- You could also go swimming in the local swimming spots such as Pine Island (South East) of Tuggeranong Mall or Kambah Pool which is to the left of the suburb Kambah. They are both really lovely places to swim and Kambah Pool has nice picnic areas and a nudist beach (or so legend has it). Both of these swimming places are in the river (don't know what name)
- Also the town Tharwa is nice and if you drive down, you could go to Lanyon homestead.
- I don't know if it still exists after the fires, but there used to be a wonderful animal sanctuary in Tuggeranong on the way to the observatory. When we went, there were a lot of kangaroos by the road and we saw an emu as well.
- I also know it's possible to hike up some of the mountains in the ACT, but I don't know the details.
- The botanic garden are also lovely.

- I would just like to thank the person who typed the fact each greyhound leg must be booked seperatly to obtain a discount. You've saved me about $16. thankyou

I'm not sure about the nudist beach to be honest, but it certainly wouldn't be at Kambah Pool, which isn't in the river (the Molonglo, I believe). Pine Island is most certainly beautiful, yeah, I'd love to get some photos down there to put in this article. It's one of those "local treasures" that isn't really advertised anywhere. Being a resident of Queanbeyan/Canberra, I look forward to including some information about this myself, as it's one of my favourite places in the whole world for sanctuary.

The "animal sanctuary" referred to is the National Zoo & Aquarium and most certainly still exists :)

The ACT is perfect for hikers, I believe. There are several mountains to choose from, each offering their own unique experience (haha I sound like a brochure...), and none of them are particularly intensive - they're all very gradual inclines. I'd personally recommend Mt. Stromlo (North Canberra/Inner North), Mt. Ainslie (North Canberra/Inner North), Mt. Rogers (Belconnen), Mt. Taylor (Tuggeranong) and Red Hill (Woden Valley). There's also a great mountain bike trail in the pine plantation near the airport, I'll have to get more details on that. Also, I'm pretty sure you don't need permits or anything like that to hike up the aforementioned peaks. You just do it :).

Peace & Love :) Psychonavigation (talk) 01:45, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Kambah Pool ( Right turn at the round a bout junction) Carpark at bottom of Rock pool is in fact a sanctioned Nude Beach. Follow concrete path (past toilet block) you will see the sign declaring the 'Nude Bathing'.

Kambah Pool in Tuggeranong on the Murrumbidgee River indeed does have a nude bathing area, I've been there on a bushwalk. It's very pretty and has excellent hiking trails and swimming. I'll get around to finding a photo (obviously not of the nude people!) and updating that part of the page. ChristiesChicken (talk) 05:24, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Hotel photos

Hi, everyone. Are those buildings particularly notable, such that they would be exceptions to our image policy regarding business photos? I doubt it, as Rydges looks fairly typical of the boxy style of modern hotel architecture to me, and the Hyatt photo is possibly even less interesting. Am I missing something? Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:41, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

I added those photos, not being aware that they contravened policy - sorry about that. The Rydges is unremarkable (it's main claim to fame is that it's really ugly! - it looks even worse on the inside, believe it or not), but the Hyatt is Canberra's oldest (I think) and most posh hotel. That photo could go as well though. Regards, Nick-D (talk) 08:01, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Well, if a photo that showed how posh the Hyatt is could be found, it might be justifiable to put that photo up, with the remark that it's Canberra's oldest and poshest hotel, but how old is it, actually? If you don't mind, it seems like it might be best for both photos to be deleted. Don't feel bad about putting them up, though. :-) Best, Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:15, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

It is historic, as it was built at the same time as the capital as the first residence for the politicians coming to Canberra. It is a fine place for afternoon tea and a look around, but the photo doesn't show off that aspect of it. --Inas (talk) 08:32, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like a good target for a photo hunt or new photo. We can leave the current photo up for the time being, but it should be thought of as a placeholder, I think. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:50, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

I agree completely. There's a history of the hotel here which may be of interest - it's about 90 years old in a city which is currently celebrating its centenary. Nick-D (talk) 10:52, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Maybe put that historic comment above as a photo caption? Hi everyone.

Hotel Canberra, in its current guise the 'Hyatt Canberra', is indeed historic and a well-known landmark in Canberra. Along with the Brassy Hotel and the Hotel Kurrajong, it was built in the early days of Canberra for the purpose of housing early politicians and public servants to the fledgling city. An Australian Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, died in the hotel Kurrajong and all three hotels have a lot of political history that Australians may find interesting. I agree that that information could probably be placed with the hotel listings themselves ChristiesChicken (talk) 05:24, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Small edits to the history part of "understand"

Hi, I'm very familiar with this city. I made a few small edits to the 'Understand' section to replace some factually incorrect information. Melbourne has never been the capital of Australia, but a number of national institutions were housed there while Canberra was being established. Canberra was in fact established by the signing of the Australian constitution into UK law in 1901, not in 1912 when the city was founded. There is a whole section of the Constitution dedicated to it with specific references to the distances between Sydney and Melbourne. That information is still in the Australian constitution.

Perhaps more controversially, I also made a wee change to the end of that sentence to reflect something that was mentioned above in this talk page, that Canberra remains something of a controversial city. Just look above under 'why', and also in the Wikipedia talk page for Canberra, or speak to the nearest Australian, for evidence of this. This is something that I think is important for understanding Canberra at a city, but that should not overshadow the fact that its actually a really beautiful city with undeniably important and interesting national institutions like Parliament House and the National War Memorial. I think that the first few lines at the top of the page, which mention that, mean that that kind of overshadowing doesn't occur. ChristiesChicken (talk) 05:24, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks ChristiesChicken, there are also some Australian residents who are frequent WV contributors as well. --Andrewssi2 (talk) 05:29, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Needs a table of contents

This page needs a table of contents template at the top. —The preceding comment was added by ‎99.190.132.77 (talk • contribs) 17:26, 12 December 2017

• No it does not. Would you kindly consult Wikivoyage:Manual_of_style and get acquainted with the fact that, in this Wiki, "tables of contents" are hardly used. Thanks for the attention Ibaman (talk) 17:33, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

And, as with all other Wikivoyage articles, there is a table of contents anyway, at the bottom of the banner (the rectangular image at the very top of the page) — try moving your cursor around over "Understand", "Get in", "Get around", "See", etc, on that line. Vidimian (talk) 23:30, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

Putting the Tram on the map

The Wikipedia article on w:Trams in Canberra has what appears to me to be a properly geocoded map of the first line. I think it would serve the traveler to put this line onto the map like we do with other urban rail systems. Hobbitschuster (talk) 08:13, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

Makes sense. I don't think anyone would disagree with you.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 08:28, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

Can someone who knows the necessary coding do the honors? Oh and we might also wish to include it in the rint template... Hobbitschuster (talk) 08:33, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

The tram still doesn't show up :-( Hobbitschuster (talk) 11:47, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

"Town Centre?" infobox

I'm not sure whether it should be included. I was in Canberra last week and it didn't really confuse me that much. Instead, I was much more confused on the inconsistencies with "City", "City centre", "CBD", and "Civic", not to say that nearly every sign in Canberra is half-torn and is barely legible and are confusing for the most part. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 11:41, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Time for districts

Canberra has gotten quite long and so I think it is time to districtify Canberra. I made a proposed map in my userspace on how the districts would work, but a map of the districts can be seen on the right. Does that look good, or should some of them be merged? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 03:34, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

In particular, I should say that I'll be using an acronym in Western Country ACT because no-one calls it Country Australian Capital Territory. Do many people outside Australia know what ACT stands for? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 09:17, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

What I also didn't mention earlier is that Canberra Central would be divided by six. I've added a map for illustration. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 12:52, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

No, I don't think many people outside Australia, or certainly in the U.S., know what the ACT is. But I think it's OK to use "Western Country ACT" instead of "Western Country Australian Capital Territory," for brevity. Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:48, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

Okay sure. Thanks for the clarification.

On top of that, I think my proposed South Canberra might get very long and it too will eventually have to be divided, but we can follow the official boundaries (listed on User:SHB2000/Canberra CBD map). The only issue with that is that Capital Hill doesn't fit anywhere into those six (because of the nice layout of the city), and as far as I'm aware, we never have articles for just a parliament house as it fails wv:wiaa but this could be an exception, but I'll raise this in the travelers pub. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 05:30, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

I think for now, I'll leave S Canberra as it is as proposed, but it can always be split up later. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 10:33, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

But for now, I have a quick district progress guide here in my userspace. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 23:27, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

After a further look, it seems the three districts just southwest of Canberra Central don't have much in them. Should they be merged? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 23:30, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Merger

It seems the three small districts just west of Canberra Central only have four see listings altogether. I merged them, so it serves the traveler. Hope noone minds. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 00:12, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

It seems that I was a terrible planner, and overestimated the number of listings there would be for each district. However, I'd like to do the following:

• Merge Belconnen and Gungahlin together.
• Merge Fyshwick into Canberra. A single wetland does not get its own article
• Merge Tuggeranong and surrounds along with Western Country ACT and make call it Tuggeranong and Country ACT
• Merge Campbell and North Canberra together.

If they do ever turn out to be very very long, we can split them up from there, but right now I think my planning was terrible and too many districts doesn't exactly serve the traveler. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 09:58, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Done, and one more final merger – I propose to merge Eastern Canberra as there are no points of interests apart from a business park and a hotel. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 07:57, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

Districts complete

Although some of the districts are still only at usable, I've finished all the districts and most are either at informative, or guide. I'll be reforming this page in the next few days to move them out, and then try and get our first complete southern hemisphere city with all districts at guide status. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 04:18, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

As I've finished, I'll be moving the districts out of my userspace in the next hour – this page will need a bit of a cleanup, but I am currently on that. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 10:23, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Small adjustments to districts – breadcrumbing Namadgi National Park under Tuggeranong and Country ACT instead of Canberra

I decided to make a better dynamic map given we don't have many users who can make a static map, and one problem I've always thought was dealing with Canberra/Namadgi National Park. It's entirely within Country ACT, and it does require you to drive a little, and it is not really a district (hence its categorization).

However, now I'm thinking Namadgi National Park might be better off being breadcrumbed under Canberra/Tuggeranong and Country ACT, as the park IS in Country ACT, it may be more beneficial to recategorize it somewhat like the categorization of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah. Other thoughts? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 05:00, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Done. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 00:57, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

A few minor adjustments to the districts

I was wondering whether including the District of Stromlo under Canberra/Weston Creek, Molonglo Valley and Woden instead of Canberra/Tuggeranong and Country ACT. Some new housing recent developments have extended into the District of Stromlo to the point where the residential part of it is interwined with Weston Creek. While the MTB park and the observatory used to be in Country ACT, these are at the brink of becoming a part of the urban Canberra; some may even say that the MTB park has already become a part of Weston

Another adjustment that I was thinking of making was having a new Canberra/Airport and East district. Some travellers do like to stay near airports and this would narrow down the scope of the already very large Canberra/Tuggeranong and Country ACT.

Other comments? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 07:36, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

A map of the new proposed districts here. Took six failed attempts but finally got it done. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 10:25, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

If there are no objections by tomorrow, I'll move out User:SHB2000/Airport and East and adjust the various maps. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 10:43, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

Aggressive road safety signs – worth a mention?

If there's one thing that sticks out to first-time visitors apart from all the government-related institutions, it's Canberra's very aggressive road signs – while aggressive road signs aren't unique to Canberra, no other city has so many aggressive road signs to the extent that Canberra has. Drink drive? Die in a ditch (that's one example of many).

While it doesn't affect most travellers, I think it's an interesting trivial thing that Canberra is known for that's possibly worth mentioning in the § Get around section. Any other thoughts?

--SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 08:47, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

For some other examples:

• Don't drink and drive
• Missing a call won't kill you
• Drive n text? UB next
• Alcohol + Speed. Dead ahead.
• People die on ACT roads

I'll add more if I remember any others. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 09:02, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

That's really nothing compared to the British ones in the 1970s. Ground Zero (talk) 18:08, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

lmao, that one made my Monday afternoon. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 07:45, 20 March 2023 (UTC)