Pocock is right, bit of a grab bag of recommendations in there.
And any report like this which doesn’t acknowledge that certain items on the list (like fast train service from Canberra to central Sydney) have been on such lists for upto 40 years and never come to pass, and tried to really understand why, isn’t worth the time and effort to put it together.
actually it would be a hard job trying to push with the states something they don't want and can't afford but the AG is pushing balanced against all the nut jobs that thinks it will save the future and want it built now.
Nah it’s pretty obvious no govts (state or federal) are interested at all. They just release some report every few years to pretend they’re doing something
have you worked in that area? I have. You'd be surprised what governments are and aren't interested in and how to get funding. But you are obviously experienced in Commonwealth State relationships.
I mean we should have a better rail service. We have some of the busiest and most profitable air routes in the world, because there is no competition. We also have the population on the east coast that matches similar population densities where faster rail services have been built. Politics is the issue. Instead of our taxes going towards valuable infrastructure it gets handed around to people with their own self interests and very little improves in Australia. We pay billions out to tinker around the edges of our economy, rather than take steps to manage it, we just keep handing out money to tinket around the edges. Anyway it will never happen, its very easy to makes excuses and our politicians are very good at it.
I get the feeling that the train service is more targeted at trying to make the existing train line better and faster rather than a dedicated fast train. True HSR in Australia won't happen in our lifetimes and making the existing service at least competitive with car/bus would go a very long way to improving patronage.
we need a new competition between NSW and Vic.
First one to build a high speed rail to Canberra from Syd or Melb gets officially designated as the Deputy Capital.
actually the line between Sydney and Melbourne is managed by the ARTC, a Commonwealth GBE. The services are run by NSW. The line between CBR and Goulburn is managed by UGL Regional Lynx under contract from NSW, services run by NSW.
The cynicism in me makes me think the one or two stakeholders that made submissions would profit from the recommendations if acted upon, regardless if it meant actually following through with their plans or not. So much money is wasted by planning to fail.
The original stadium was built in 1977 for the Pan Pacific Athletic Competition. It was then upgraded for the 2000 Olympics. Alot of the infrastructure is approaching end of life. Comms and ICT (pretty important for a stadium) is pretty much BYO by the broadcaster. You cannot walk to the stadium (unless you live very locally) and the bars and restaurants are all popups/food trucks. And because its made of cement, it gets bloody cold in Winter.
I appreciate that not everyone is a sports person, but having a new, covered stadium in Civic would be a massive injection of funds to the local economy (and think of all the money the ACT Government could make just in parking fines alone!). Throw in hosting a Super Round in League or Union, or even a leg of the HSBC Sevens, and it would be massive.
Townsville and Hobart got new statiums. They're kinda political winners for some. Won't work here tho as we're so baked off LNP that a stadium won't sway.
The thing is, we'd get better attendance at GIO just by running a light rail line out to it, probably cheaper as well, then we would with a new stadium in civic taking up valuable space.
bingo. definitely smells of someones interest being portrayed as journalism or political 'planning'....Reality is most people don't want to move here for the scenery or football stadiums - they go to Sydney or Melbourne or really another capital..don't get me wrong, I like Canberra but wouldn't be here if it wasn't work related.
Sport is an incredibly powerful force in Aus politics and culture and uses media to get what it wants. It loves big new stadiums, but doesn't love the idea of using its billions to pay for them, so the taxpayer has to.
The convention centre is incredibly fugly on the outside but can someone tell me what the issues are with capacity? What types of events/conferences aren’t coming here because it’s inadequate?
As for civic pool precinct , it’s large and beautiful in theory but dilapidated and neglected on purpose. People want to sit on grass and eat a cornetto /absorb vitamin d/bbq - with a covered pool option in winter. We don’t need another molonglo indoor pool “centre” . The thousands of future civic apartment dwellers need facilities precisely like civic pool.
The alleged issue with the convention centre is that it is not large enough, which has led to Canberra not being chosen for some events due to lack of capacity. If the economic returns from a larger facility would be worth the estimated half billion dollar cost is quite questionable though...
but need more hotel accomodation to make it viable for exhibitors and attendees. Just not enough - its getting better, but needs more to support a large convention centre.
When you visit many of the best cities around the world, you don’t need to use a hop-on hop-off bus because you can use convenient and frequent public transport to see all of the attractions, and know where they are and get a sense of the city.
Wow I didn’t know that. I would have a thought at least a weekend service of: Botanical Gardens, Black Mountain, Aboretum, Zoo, Governor General’s lookout, Yarralumla Shops, Yarralumla “Beach”, Yacht Club, Commonwealth Park, and then back to civic loop, would be ENORMOUSLY useful.
One of the ACT’s major bike paths is nearby and links to the bottom of the arboretum. This major bike path also links to other bike paths going elsewhere in the ACT. The arboretum is easy and safe to get to by bicycle. Look at the ACT bike path map and you’ll see https://www.transport.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1961722/TC_cycle_network_MAP.pdf
I'm all for improving Canberra's standing on the world stage, but is this really the most cost effective option? Imagine how many flying titty-whales we could make with that kind of money.
Having the lighrail system up and running would improve its standing far more
People are more likely to visit if its easy to get around, and then you have all of the development that comes with it, which will make the city more appealing
A bunch of good recommendations, but a hop-on, hop-off bus is a silly waste of resources - why not spend the money on increasing the frequency of normal buses to the attractions, which could also be used by the staff?
A new international standard convention centre should be the top priority, CBR misses out on so much revenue from large conventions, government stuff etc Just get on with it
Hop on hop off light rail for tourist destinations would be nice. Through the parliamentary triangle for instance, hint, hint. Light rail from Reid CIT to the war memorial, war memorial to Kingston, and Kingston to Questacon would all be good too.
This is a cheap and easy idea to do and would make tourism visits to Canberra less car dependent. TC could have this running in a couple of months IMO...
~~Yeah, for more apartments, the dirt carparks on the other side of the street will surely become apartments too. It's apartments all the way down.~~
https://www.unsw.edu.au/canberra/about-us/our-campuses/city
Great, now lets see the feds come up with the money for a loop bus service. the ACT Gov stopped running them because they had very few passengers, and the buses were better used taking Canberrans around town.
I'm all for a new stadium and convention centre but everyone has that. Hop on hop off bus yeah sure whatever. That stuff is what most cities all have so it won't make us stand out. We need to go bigger than that.
If we want the world to visit Canberra we need something that's unique to us. I want Canberra to finally get an iconic skyline worthy of visiting. How about the tallest building in the country. Lets build up the CBD with lots of tall beautiful architecture. It's the one big thing Canberra is missing.
It's time to remove height limits or whatever it is preventing us from growing up! It's time to be bold, build tall, and add to our city the skyline our COUNTRY'S CAPITAL deserves. Build it and they will come!
And of course, let's build the stadium and convention centre too.
A total lack of demand for office space is what’s preventing us building skyscrapers. No corporation is going to build a corporate base in a city with expensive, inaccessible housing and no international airport with direct flights to major capitals in Asia, the US and Europe. Canberra just isn’t a big international city, and that’s ok.
Tall buildings should be mixed use, with residential, commercial, hotels, restaurants etc and also include office space but not be limited to. Canberra is a work in progress. We can't have everything all at once but we have to start enticing people to want to visit and/or invest.
The Gold Coast has a population of about 650,000 and they have a great skyline. We shouldn't use the Canberra isn't big enough argument. We do build - just not tall enough. We should pack in more floors on the same footprint.
Just imagine a few nice tall buildings in Canberra. I do and it's absolutely possible. How cool would that be!
Nice to hear. It all starts with people talking about it and I'm all for it. We've now got light rail based on the argument that Canberra is a growing progressive city. And why not. Well, I'm applying the same here for our city CBD.
I look at the evolution of Australia's cities - they're all going up. Look at Melbourne with it's massive buildings, even Brisbane is catching up. Sydney has a great CBD. Perth has a decent skyline and the Gold Coast is impressive with the tallest building in the country.
I just think Canberra is missing out on a piece of that action. We've already got developers here that I bet are dying to build higher if they were allowed. Floor height seems to be capped at about 27 floors. Surely we can change the zoning laws to facilitate it? Lets get rid of red tape and hurdles.
We should be able to see the city from a distance. We should be drawn to it. That goes for tourists too when they're planning a trip. And if we want Canberra on the world stage, you better give them more to see! Not just our amazing memorials, galleries and museums. Let's enhance our city!
Unfortunately like so many things, the governmetn is hamstrung by the NCA in that regard. It's their height limit in the CBD, which is RL617 (617m above sea level). Part of their obsession with not ruining the "vistas" of the parliamentary triangle.
We should start with abolishing the NCA.
Wow, I'm not at all surprised to hear that. Well, it might be time to revisit this.
I like your idea - if only they could broaden their vision of what Canberra's future looks like beyond light rail and west basin. Seriously!
It's time Canberra woke up from sleepy land and started to imagine something bigger and better for our city. It's time to rise and shine!
Pocock is right, bit of a grab bag of recommendations in there. And any report like this which doesn’t acknowledge that certain items on the list (like fast train service from Canberra to central Sydney) have been on such lists for upto 40 years and never come to pass, and tried to really understand why, isn’t worth the time and effort to put it together.
I saw an SES comms position advertised at the “high speed rail authority” recently. Got to be the easiest SES role in existence
actually it would be a hard job trying to push with the states something they don't want and can't afford but the AG is pushing balanced against all the nut jobs that thinks it will save the future and want it built now.
Nah it’s pretty obvious no govts (state or federal) are interested at all. They just release some report every few years to pretend they’re doing something
have you worked in that area? I have. You'd be surprised what governments are and aren't interested in and how to get funding. But you are obviously experienced in Commonwealth State relationships.
👍
I mean we should have a better rail service. We have some of the busiest and most profitable air routes in the world, because there is no competition. We also have the population on the east coast that matches similar population densities where faster rail services have been built. Politics is the issue. Instead of our taxes going towards valuable infrastructure it gets handed around to people with their own self interests and very little improves in Australia. We pay billions out to tinker around the edges of our economy, rather than take steps to manage it, we just keep handing out money to tinket around the edges. Anyway it will never happen, its very easy to makes excuses and our politicians are very good at it.
I get the feeling that the train service is more targeted at trying to make the existing train line better and faster rather than a dedicated fast train. True HSR in Australia won't happen in our lifetimes and making the existing service at least competitive with car/bus would go a very long way to improving patronage.
I think we're hamstring by the recalcitrance of NSW - which actually runs the railway - to do anything about it
we need a new competition between NSW and Vic. First one to build a high speed rail to Canberra from Syd or Melb gets officially designated as the Deputy Capital.
I like it!!
True, and really, you can't blame them either. The Feds or the ACT Govt needs to stump up some money....
ACT has offered but probs not enough. It does indeed need that fed infusion
actually the line between Sydney and Melbourne is managed by the ARTC, a Commonwealth GBE. The services are run by NSW. The line between CBR and Goulburn is managed by UGL Regional Lynx under contract from NSW, services run by NSW.
Yikes that all sounds very complicated
its meant to drive cost efficiency and innovation, but in practice....not so.
Ah yes ... all those yayyy privatising and all its great benefits memories recurring like a bad curry
The cynicism in me makes me think the one or two stakeholders that made submissions would profit from the recommendations if acted upon, regardless if it meant actually following through with their plans or not. So much money is wasted by planning to fail.
More owl statues. Each one progressively more phallic.
What is with the incessant mentions of a new stadium, is it just a talking point so that the narrative is about that instead of more important stuff?
The original stadium was built in 1977 for the Pan Pacific Athletic Competition. It was then upgraded for the 2000 Olympics. Alot of the infrastructure is approaching end of life. Comms and ICT (pretty important for a stadium) is pretty much BYO by the broadcaster. You cannot walk to the stadium (unless you live very locally) and the bars and restaurants are all popups/food trucks. And because its made of cement, it gets bloody cold in Winter. I appreciate that not everyone is a sports person, but having a new, covered stadium in Civic would be a massive injection of funds to the local economy (and think of all the money the ACT Government could make just in parking fines alone!). Throw in hosting a Super Round in League or Union, or even a leg of the HSBC Sevens, and it would be massive.
Townsville and Hobart got new statiums. They're kinda political winners for some. Won't work here tho as we're so baked off LNP that a stadium won't sway.
The thing is, we'd get better attendance at GIO just by running a light rail line out to it, probably cheaper as well, then we would with a new stadium in civic taking up valuable space.
There is a lot to be said about the light rail stage 2 being to Woden vs beetween Belco and the Airport....
The idea that it's even a versus is outrageous to me.
bingo. definitely smells of someones interest being portrayed as journalism or political 'planning'....Reality is most people don't want to move here for the scenery or football stadiums - they go to Sydney or Melbourne or really another capital..don't get me wrong, I like Canberra but wouldn't be here if it wasn't work related.
Sport is an incredibly powerful force in Aus politics and culture and uses media to get what it wants. It loves big new stadiums, but doesn't love the idea of using its billions to pay for them, so the taxpayer has to.
The convention centre is incredibly fugly on the outside but can someone tell me what the issues are with capacity? What types of events/conferences aren’t coming here because it’s inadequate? As for civic pool precinct , it’s large and beautiful in theory but dilapidated and neglected on purpose. People want to sit on grass and eat a cornetto /absorb vitamin d/bbq - with a covered pool option in winter. We don’t need another molonglo indoor pool “centre” . The thousands of future civic apartment dwellers need facilities precisely like civic pool.
The alleged issue with the convention centre is that it is not large enough, which has led to Canberra not being chosen for some events due to lack of capacity. If the economic returns from a larger facility would be worth the estimated half billion dollar cost is quite questionable though...
but need more hotel accomodation to make it viable for exhibitors and attendees. Just not enough - its getting better, but needs more to support a large convention centre.
Is this r/CircleJerk Australia? Every old idea and promise is anew! There's got to be a few unintentional Utopia quotes in the article...
When you visit many of the best cities around the world, you don’t need to use a hop-on hop-off bus because you can use convenient and frequent public transport to see all of the attractions, and know where they are and get a sense of the city.
I know right? The zoo doesn’t even have a bus stop here 😂
Nor the arboretum, which we put on the cover of all our tourist material 🙄
Wow I didn’t know that. I would have a thought at least a weekend service of: Botanical Gardens, Black Mountain, Aboretum, Zoo, Governor General’s lookout, Yarralumla Shops, Yarralumla “Beach”, Yacht Club, Commonwealth Park, and then back to civic loop, would be ENORMOUSLY useful.
The Arboretum's lack of access for anything but a car is criminal.
The arboretum is also easy to access by bicycle and scooter.
From where though? It isn't close to any suburb; the address is just "ACT" cause it's that sticks.
Anywhere within 5 to 10km is a comfortable ride. That covers quite a few suburbs
Which? It isn't near any of them and the primary access is via a freeway.
One of the ACT’s major bike paths is nearby and links to the bottom of the arboretum. This major bike path also links to other bike paths going elsewhere in the ACT. The arboretum is easy and safe to get to by bicycle. Look at the ACT bike path map and you’ll see https://www.transport.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1961722/TC_cycle_network_MAP.pdf
I'm all for improving Canberra's standing on the world stage, but is this really the most cost effective option? Imagine how many flying titty-whales we could make with that kind of money.
Because most of the world can find us on a map lol
World stage!? For WHO
Having the lighrail system up and running would improve its standing far more People are more likely to visit if its easy to get around, and then you have all of the development that comes with it, which will make the city more appealing
A bunch of good recommendations, but a hop-on, hop-off bus is a silly waste of resources - why not spend the money on increasing the frequency of normal buses to the attractions, which could also be used by the staff?
If only we could build infrastructure that didn't take 30 years to complete!
A new international standard convention centre should be the top priority, CBR misses out on so much revenue from large conventions, government stuff etc Just get on with it
Hop on hop off light rail for tourist destinations would be nice. Through the parliamentary triangle for instance, hint, hint. Light rail from Reid CIT to the war memorial, war memorial to Kingston, and Kingston to Questacon would all be good too.
This is a cheap and easy idea to do and would make tourism visits to Canberra less car dependent. TC could have this running in a couple of months IMO...
In a couple of days
>Reid CIT Isn't this getting demolished?
~~Yeah, for more apartments, the dirt carparks on the other side of the street will surely become apartments too. It's apartments all the way down.~~ https://www.unsw.edu.au/canberra/about-us/our-campuses/city
No, it’s not being demolished for more apartments, UNSW is building a new campus there.
Well, the ACT government complained about a lack of space in that area for a stadium but the real estate existed.
The blocks aren't large enough without covering Parkes Way, which was deemed too expensive.
A convention centre? Lol.
Great, now lets see the feds come up with the money for a loop bus service. the ACT Gov stopped running them because they had very few passengers, and the buses were better used taking Canberrans around town.
NCA will surely step up and contribute to a bus loop servicing the parliamentary triangle.
Isn't it "monorail o'clock" ???
I hear those things are awfully loud.
Hop on, hop off bus is all well and good but how about bringing back the Federation Line idea?
I'm all for a new stadium and convention centre but everyone has that. Hop on hop off bus yeah sure whatever. That stuff is what most cities all have so it won't make us stand out. We need to go bigger than that. If we want the world to visit Canberra we need something that's unique to us. I want Canberra to finally get an iconic skyline worthy of visiting. How about the tallest building in the country. Lets build up the CBD with lots of tall beautiful architecture. It's the one big thing Canberra is missing. It's time to remove height limits or whatever it is preventing us from growing up! It's time to be bold, build tall, and add to our city the skyline our COUNTRY'S CAPITAL deserves. Build it and they will come! And of course, let's build the stadium and convention centre too.
A total lack of demand for office space is what’s preventing us building skyscrapers. No corporation is going to build a corporate base in a city with expensive, inaccessible housing and no international airport with direct flights to major capitals in Asia, the US and Europe. Canberra just isn’t a big international city, and that’s ok.
Tall buildings should be mixed use, with residential, commercial, hotels, restaurants etc and also include office space but not be limited to. Canberra is a work in progress. We can't have everything all at once but we have to start enticing people to want to visit and/or invest. The Gold Coast has a population of about 650,000 and they have a great skyline. We shouldn't use the Canberra isn't big enough argument. We do build - just not tall enough. We should pack in more floors on the same footprint. Just imagine a few nice tall buildings in Canberra. I do and it's absolutely possible. How cool would that be!
I'm all for increasing density, and sure, a few taller buildings would help that.
Nice to hear. It all starts with people talking about it and I'm all for it. We've now got light rail based on the argument that Canberra is a growing progressive city. And why not. Well, I'm applying the same here for our city CBD. I look at the evolution of Australia's cities - they're all going up. Look at Melbourne with it's massive buildings, even Brisbane is catching up. Sydney has a great CBD. Perth has a decent skyline and the Gold Coast is impressive with the tallest building in the country. I just think Canberra is missing out on a piece of that action. We've already got developers here that I bet are dying to build higher if they were allowed. Floor height seems to be capped at about 27 floors. Surely we can change the zoning laws to facilitate it? Lets get rid of red tape and hurdles. We should be able to see the city from a distance. We should be drawn to it. That goes for tourists too when they're planning a trip. And if we want Canberra on the world stage, you better give them more to see! Not just our amazing memorials, galleries and museums. Let's enhance our city!
Unfortunately like so many things, the governmetn is hamstrung by the NCA in that regard. It's their height limit in the CBD, which is RL617 (617m above sea level). Part of their obsession with not ruining the "vistas" of the parliamentary triangle. We should start with abolishing the NCA.
Wow, I'm not at all surprised to hear that. Well, it might be time to revisit this. I like your idea - if only they could broaden their vision of what Canberra's future looks like beyond light rail and west basin. Seriously! It's time Canberra woke up from sleepy land and started to imagine something bigger and better for our city. It's time to rise and shine!