Canary Island date palms

I mentioned the Canary Island date palms in Margaret Timpson Park a week or so ago, and here's a better view of them. You can also see one of the grass pyramids on the right. The pyramids are a bit odd - they don't seem to relate to anything in particular, but children like running up them and rolling back down again!

Leafy Charnwood

This is Charnwood Shops, one of the local shopping centres, but perhaps a little larger than most. Charnwood is named after a property established in the area in 1833, which in turn was named for the Forest of Charnwood in England. The suburb was gazetted in 1973.

The following information about the suburb is taken from Wikipedia:

Charnwood's design was based on the Radburn town planning principle. Under this design, houses were to face common parkland, with the suburb's streets servicing garages situated at the rear of the houses. The design failed in its application, however, as home owners built fences around the "park side" of their blocks, effectively screening the houses away from the common parkland. This created long, narrow, fenced walkways, with poor lighting and no neighbourhood surveillance. The network of pathways ensures that it is possible to walk from any point in the suburb to any other without directly crossing a road; pedestrian bridges can be used to cross the few major streets within the suburb.

Interestingly, the planning design wasn't very successful in Radburn (New Jersey), which was established in 1929. Nor did it work well in other places where it was copied, and those places have developed a reputation as less-than-desirable places to live. Yet 40-odd years later it was tried in Canberra, and - surprise surprise - it hasn't worked here either. It's a shame, because the theory is lovely - houses facing onto common parks, while cars, garages and other utilities are confined to the back near the streets.

Kambah's been bugged!

Kambah Village Shopping Centre has a number of sculptural elements, apart from the sheep grazing out near the road. The sheep, the granite dung beetle in the centre, and the poles are all the work of Matthew Harding, who is responsible for what I think is some of the most fun public art in Canberra. I'm not sure if he also did the bronze beetle in the foreground, but I like that too!

 

Play time

Plenty of children out enjoying the sunshine at this playground in Kippax. It's right next to the library and shops, and gives the kids a chance to burn off some energy before enduring grocery shopping with mum or dad. 

Late autumn colour

Winter may only be a few days away, but there's still plenty of bright autumn colour in Canberra. This is a small lane - not much more than a shared driveway - off Morell Close, Belconnen. It's part of the 'Magnolia' development (the apartments nearby are called 'Jarrah' and 'Hakea'). The hedge on the right marks the rear boundary of the houses in the next lane across, and the large concrete structures on the left are part of the townhouses accessed from this lane.

Now you see it ...

Just an ordinary suburban auto repairer and auto electrician. They've been there for years, just across from the service station (to the left of this photo), and always seem busy. But they're on the way out. 7-eleven has bought the property, and apparently it's being turned into a big convenience store, and there'll be no room for these guys. Bit sad to see these smaller operators pushed out by big corporations. There will probably be a significant impact on the small supermarket in the shops next door, and perhaps also the bakery as well.

Yes, many of these small local shops need a facelift, but a big shiny convenience store? No thanks.

Hop to it!

It's not uncommon to see mobs of kangaroos in the paddocks around and the green corridors within Canberra, although with the recent rain they're a little less likely to be close to the roads. But we still see (or sometimes smell!) too many dead roos on the roadside.

These are grey kangaroos - the most common type around here. In 2008, a Canberra Times article stated that "an annual average of 950 accidents involving kangaroos that are serious enough to warrant police attendance", and two of the major car insurers said they had processed 1200 kangaroo-related claims in the past year (and then there are other insurers, people who don't claim for minor damage, and people who are uninsured).

So if you're driving around Canberra, especially between 5pm and 10pm, in winter, around a full moon, and after a dry spell, stay alert for roos!

Meet Brian and Dave

We needed to restock on fruit and a few other foodstuffs this morning, so popped into Belconnen Markets to see what was open. Most of the market shops operate Wednesday to Sunday, but some were busy preparing for the week today, and were happy for us to buy whatever new produce had been unpacked already.

Market Gourmet had the shutters open, and Dave (on the right) called out as we passed, practising his sales technique. He was busy butchering lamb, and explained a bit about what he was doing while he worked. We wandered off to buy the fruit, then came back to buy lamb and chicken on the way out. Dave was happy to trim and dice the lamb for us while we waited, meanwhile keeping up a steady stream of banter with his colleague Brian about everything from meat to childhood memories to the Playstation Call of Duty: Black Ops game.

Worth a visit for the comedy duo alone :)

Market Gourmet
Ph.  02 6251 9002
Shops 24 & 25 (behind Food Lovers)
Belconnen Fresh Food Markets
Lathlain Street, Belconnen

Colour on the hill

Driving north along the Tuggeranong Parkway yesterday, my eye was caught by this mass of red and yellow. It's part of the National Arboretum - a long term work in progress.

It was overcast and glary, hence the lack of colour in the sky, and I didn't have much of chance to take photos at 100 kilometres an hour (no - I wasn't driving!), but I'm going to try to arrange a visit to the site one Sunday soon (it's closed to the public Monday to Saturday because it's still under construction).

Sheep in the city

We were in the southern suburbs of Canberra today, and spotted a small flock of sheep grazing on the grassy slope leading up to the Kambah Village Shopping Centre. This is another of the Group Centres, and includes a large supermarket, a hotel, and numerous smaller shops.

Kambah derives from the same Aboriginal word as Canberra: Ngambri or Kamberri, the name of the group of people who lived here before European settlement. It was named after Kambah Homestead, a property which was farmed from 1875 until 1970 (and which was originally known as Sulwood until the turn of the century). All that's left of the station now is Kambah Woolshed.

Kambah is the largest suburb in Canberra, and was the first suburb established in the Tuggeranong satellite 'Town', in 1973-1974. I think the sheep (the ones pictured, not the real ones) arrived about 2001 or so, but I haven't been able to find out anything about who made them. Apparently they get dressed up for special occasions like Christmas and Australia Day!