Latest news with #LakeBurleyGriffin
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Meet the Canberrans in Australia's national dragon boating team, the Auroras
It's a fast and furious sport with an ancient past and a growing legion of devoted fans. But when 16-year-old Jun Lee tells people he races dragon boats, he's almost always met with confusion. "Usually it's something like, what is a dragon boat?" the Canberra schoolboy said. "It's a pretty niche sport at the end of the day, so not many people know about it." Dragon boating originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The modern version of the sport sees teams of 20 paddlers — plus a drummer and a steerer — race distances up to two kilometres. "I think it is one of the most high-stress environments I'm in," Lee said. The sport's popularity is on the rise, with competitive and social clubs popping up around the country. More than 300 of Australia's best paddlers have travelled to Germany to compete in next week's World Dragon Boat Racing Championships. The national team, called the Auroras, is made up of teens to retirees competing in different divisions, who have been preparing intensely for the past 22 weeks. That includes 32 Canberra-based paddlers, who have been braving sub-zero temperatures to train on Lake Burley Griffin almost every day. Once a rugby league and union player, Sam Thompson started dragon boating a decade ago and now captains Australia's Senior B team. "It took me a few years to admit to people that I was a dragon boater, but I'm very proud now," Thompson said. More than 4,000 paddlers from 34 countries will compete in the world championships. "It's going to be an extremely tough competition — if we get to the podium, that'll be unreal," Thompson said. While dragon boating can struggle to attract younger participants, Ashleigh Wright first picked up a paddle when she was just 12. "Mum found an ad on Facebook for it and you could do it with your parents so she thought it would be a cute thing for us to do together," she said. The now-18-year-old has not looked back since, and is proud to be pulling on the green and gold for the first time. "I love the community in dragon boating," Wright said. This month's championships will also mark the inaugural appearance of Australia's paradragon team. Among the paddlers is former paralympic cyclist Lindy Hou, who is blind. The gold medallist swapped the bike for the boat to stay fit in retirement. "Once I learnt how to hold a paddle and the movement, I just have to keep time with everybody," Hou said. The world championships begin in Germany on July 14.
ABC News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
New vision of proposed light rail Stage 2B details redevelopment of major Canberra roundabout
The ACT government has released new vision detailing how it will replace a key roundabout as part of light rail Stage 2B. Releasing its draft environmental impact statement (EIS), the government unveiled vision showing how it would connect the light rail, which begins in Gungahlin, to the city centre, across Lake Burley Griffin and on to Woden. The vision shows how the roundabout connecting Woden to Yarra Glen will be transformed into a major intersection to allow the light rail to continue on. It also shows the line travelling around Parliament House via a tunnel. The government said its EIS was an assessment of two alignments — State Circle East and National Triangle Barton — based on studies and technical reports. State Circle East, the government's preferred option, is considered to be more direct and extends from Commonwealth Avenue, along State Circle, and onto Adelaide Avenue. National Triangle Barton would travel from Commonwealth Avenue, along King George Terrace, Macquarie Street, Bligh Street, National Circuit, and Sydney Avenue. "Following extensive community and stakeholder consultation in 2024, the draft EIS offers another important opportunity for the community to provide feedback on Stage 2B as the environmental and planning approvals progress for the project." Key new details revealed in the vision show how the roundabout at Woden will be developed. The plans show traffic lights will be installed at the intersection to allow passage of vehicles into Woden and on to Yamba Drive, while the light rail passes through the centre. Southbound traffic will be directed onto Yamba Drive, with commuters entering an intersection if they wish to continue on to Melrose Drive. Northbound traffic from Yamba Drive will need to stop at traffic lights to continue on to Yarra Glen. Other modifications include improved lighting, a new pedestrian bridge and relocated "active travel path" near the Phillip Oval stop. The flyover vision also shows the planned tunnel, which would be constructed close to Parliament House, before re-emerging onto State Circle. Last year, the government said the short tunnel under Commonwealth Avenue could address engineering challenges posed by a tight bend in its preferred route for light rail to Woden. Under the proposal, the track would descend into a cut-and-cover tunnel from the Commonwealth Avenue median near Parliament, before passing under Commonwealth Avenue to emerge on State Circle. The government is calling on the public for feedback on the plans, which will be exhibited until September 5, 2025. In person drop in sessions are available and all submissions will be considered and responded to by Infrastructure Canberra. Construction on stage 2B is expected to commence in 2028, with the federal government last year committing $50 million to the project. The current proposal has not yet been costed, but it's estimated to reach completion by 2033.
ABC News
26-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Businesses cry for help as closure of Parkes Way expected to cause more traffic chaos
The temporary closure of a main arterial road is expected to cause traffic chaos in the Canberra CBD, leaving local businesses increasingly frustrated. Parkes Way will be closed in both directions between Coranderrk Street and the Glenloch Interchange from 8pm Friday, June 27, to 5am Monday, June 30, while the foundations are laid for a light rail bridge. The road is a main arterial that runs East-West along the northern edge of Lake Burley Griffin, and is a main feeder of traffic to the city, with turn-offs for traffic to access Canberra's north and south. Canberra Business Chamber CEO Greg Harford said the closure would have a big disruptive impact on businesses. "That's coming on top of significant disruption around the construction of light rail in the city centre itself," he said. "There is real concern about the ongoing nature of the disruptions we are seeing. "It's not good for business when customers find it hard to get around. Mr Harford acknowledged that much of the work was the unavoidable growing pains of a city with an increasing population, but he said the situation could be handled better. "Obviously, there's going to be some disruption when you're making major changes to the road and infrastructure," he said. "What could be done better is we could be phasing it differently and having parts of the road closed for shorter periods of time." He said some businesses were becoming increasingly unviable because customers were struggling to access the store. "The city centre will remain open and we're keen to see Canberrans come out and support local businesses." Infrastructure Canberra's acting deputy project director of light rail, Anthony Haraldson, said there would be diversions in place to avoid traffic confusion. Closures on a second weekend — July 4 to 7 — could be required to complete the work if it is not finished in time. Mr Haraldson said the light rail construction would continue to intermittently affect traffic. However, he said such closures would be similar to that on Parkes Way — conducted after hours on weekends to limit the impact on motorists.
The Guardian
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Chris Hammer: ‘The suburbs can be delightfully sinister. The blandness is a great setting for crime books'
Grey clouds are gathering overhead as Chris Hammer parks on the edge of the Jerrabomberra wetlands, a reserve bordering Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin. It will be ironic if it rains – Hammer is here to talk about drought. In 2008, long before Hammer had begun writing the crime novels that would propel him to national and global fame, he was starting his first book, The River: A Journey through the Murray-Darling. Hammer had been working as a journalist in the parliamentary press gallery, but left to travel the length of the Murray-Darling from its headwaters in Queensland to its mouth in South Australia. It was the height of the millennium drought and Hammer's resulting travelogue is a moving account of parched landscapes and the people trying to live in them. Fifteen years after the book was released, Melbourne University Press has republished it with a new introduction by Hammer. As we set off on one of the tracks that weave through this tapestry of marshes, woodland and grassland, Hammer admits he hadn't reread The River until he was presented with the opportunity to republish it. 'There were bits I was going, 'Oh, that's a bit overwrought',' he says, laughing at himself. 'Then there were other bits, I thought, 'That's quite good. Did I do that?'' Nearly two decades after his journey, more has changed than Hammer's writing. He has left journalism behind and become one of Australia's most celebrated crime writers, producing a string of novels that have shot to the top of bestseller lists around the world. Scrublands, his first, has now been adapted into a major TV series. The Murray-Darling has changed, too. In the new introduction, he reflects on how many of the dams he described as dustbowls are now overflowing, how rivers that were dry are now full. 'Australia has greened once more,' he writes. 'Complacency has returned.' But when asked how to counter today's complacency, he dials down that damning statement. 'Some people are deeply concerned that the climate is becoming more volatile,' says Hammer, who speaks with a quiet authority in measured, thoughtful sentences. 'It's not just a gradual increase in heat, it's maybe deeper and more severe droughts and certainly bigger and more frequent floods. But then you'll talk to other farmers and they'll be quite insouciant, saying, 'We've always had cycles of drought and flood.'' The Murray-Darling Basin is so enormous – roughly the size of France and Germany combined – and home to such diverse communities who work the land in such varied ways, that it is also difficult for Hammer to make any overarching conclusions about how it has changed since his journey. Hammer doesn't expect the Murray-Darling to be a priority for the re-elected Labor government. 'It's not in crisis at the moment, so there are plenty of other things to spend money on,' he says as we loop back on ourselves, crossing over a creek into some woodland. However, if there was desire in the Labor party to introduce new laws, now would be the time. The stories in The River have fed into Hammer's blockbuster crime fiction. In person, Hammer is confident and composed, but as a writer he describes himself as a 'pantser' who develops his characters and storylines as he writes – flying by the seat of his pants rather than plotting in advance. As we walk off the paved trail on to a dirt track that skirts Jerrabomberra Pool, where six cormorants are lined up on a branch, Hammer explains that he always decides on one thing before he starts writing. 'I always start with the setting,' he says. 'It has to be right there at the beginning. It's the stage that the characters will populate, where the plots will play out. It's critical to the way I write.' Several of the rural towns featured in The River have inspired locations in his novels: Wakool inspired the fictional town of Riversend in Scrublands and The Tilt is set in the Barmah-Millewa forest. Hammer's next novel, Legacy, will be published in October. 'It's set on a reimagined Paroo River,' he reveals. 'It has no dams and no irrigation and was in the best ecological condition when I travelled during that drought.' While Hammer's locations are inspired by real places, he makes sure they're never carbon copies – although people long for them to be. 'It's intriguing. I have readers who say, 'I know that place. I grew up there. You've captured it so well,'' he says. Most of his readers, however, are not so familiar with bush towns; approximately 90% of Australians now live in cities. 'I think it's an escape for them. It gets them away from their daily commutes,' he says. Hammer personally feels connected to the bush. He grew up in Canberra in the 1960s and 70s, one of three children of a public servant father and schoolteacher mother. Much of the capital was still being developed at the time, so as a teenager Hammer was desperate to leave – and briefly did, going to university in Bathurst and getting a job in Sydney, although professional opportunities soon brought him back. He met his wife in Canberra in the early 1990s, and they have made it home for their son and daughter. 'It was a pretty boring place as a kid, but what it did have was nature,' he says. 'We'd walk in the bush a lot and go to the rivers to swim.' Today, he still finds peace in the city's parks. If he's struggling to unravel a knot in one of his plots, he goes walking in the Red Hill nature reserve rather than staring at his screen. This might suggest a somewhat dreamy approach to writing, but in general Hammer is more regimented than romantic. His work as a journalist has trained him to churn out words and hit deadlines, and he is not sentimental about deleting and rewriting entire chapters if he develops better ideas. The current popularity of books set in rural areas has led to cries that Australian writers are overlooking the rest of the country. When Christos Tsiolkas was interviewed for this column, he said writers were 'guilty of turning away from the suburbs'. 'I think there's some truth in that,' says Hammer. 'But the suburbs can be delightfully sinister – the anonymity and blandness of the suburbs is a great setting for crime books. I'm sure I'll write one at some point.' As if to prove his point, we break out of the treeline back on to the road where we're parked. One hundred metres away are rows of forgettable brick cottages, but immediately before us stands a building that looks institutional – it could have been part of a school or hospital. It is clearly abandoned, although artists have tried to prettify it with a brightly coloured mural. A quick Google search brings up rumours that it was a morgue, but a deeper dive disproves that. Still, there's something unsettling about it – it's almost like something out of Hammer's novels. 'Look,' he says, cracking a smile and pointing past the graffitied back wall. 'There's even a raven sitting on the fence.' The River by Chris Hammer (Melbourne University Press, RRP $36.99) is available now
ABC News
01-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
Questacon's new hands-on exhibition brings back classics from decades past
A school trip to the nation's capital isn't complete without a visit to Questacon. The National Science and Technology Centre on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin has been helping young people engage with science, technology and innovation through interactive exhibits for the past 37 years. With some 500,000 people visiting the national institution each year, there's a lot of memories to be made. Questacon director Jo White has some fond recollections of her own. "It's a very beautiful memory of our two sons coming here. I think we had to go put [extra] money in the parking meter to extend our stay, they just loved it," she said. Ms White credits the Awesome Earth exhibition with inspiring her youngest son's career in science. That nostalgia is what Questacon is hoping to evoke with its latest exhibition, featuring a new take on some old favourites from the past three decades. ZAP! CLANK! POW! uses a colourful comic book theme to link 17 interactive displays centred around electricity, machines and motion. Kids can get hands-on with the displays, including by creating flying machines and lifting their own body weight with pulleys. "It's a bit like a gallery arcade … lots of interactive exhibits, there's beautiful colour and a lovely story, which feels very much like a cartoon script," Ms White said. "I'm hearing there's some lovely dad jokes generally part of it as well." Senior exhibition designer Ella Cameron said the comic book design already appeared to be a hit. "We have actually found during the visitor testing phase that people actually stop and engage a bit longer with the graphic panel," she said. "So people are more likely to take away not just the experience, but read the background behind whatever they're interacting with." She said the entire exhibition had been designed and manufactured in Canberra, at the Ian Potter Foundation Technology Learning Centre. "Where we can, we [design and] build things in-house ... and outsource when we need specialist skills," she said. The new exhibit has been in development for two years, with the project involving a team of about 20 scientists, writers, designers, engineers, welders and joiners. "Even once we have the idea, there is an infinite number of ways that it can look and also an infinite number of ways visitors can interact with it," Ms Cameron said. "We want to make sure that the design is intuitive and safe and also that it is fun." Last year the Australian government department responsible for Questacon was charged after a child's hands allegedly caught fire at the science centre, leaving them with serious injuries. Ms Cameron said safety was always a large part of the design process. "People often engage in things in a way that you wouldn't necessarily assume. You've got to think through all the different scenarios to make sure it is safe," she said. Composed of entirely modular displays, the exhibition is designed to be packed up and showcased in different locations. It will be on show in Canberra until February before travelling around Australia. "We really want to reach as many as we can across Australia with science and technology, and exhibitions like this make it accessible," Ms White said. "It might be the moment that sparks their curiosity in a career in STEM, or at least an interest in science and technology into the future."
