Not too big, not too small. Canberra has big monuments and small wine bars, important cultural attractions and neighbourhood cafes, and a vibe all its own. Welcome to Galah's alternative guide to the national capital, presented in partnership with VisitCanberra.
I had two days for a holiday. Not enough time to go overseas or anywhere remote. But my home is remote, and what I wanted was a break from home.
I wanted good restaurants, galleries and a couple of great walks. I wanted a city that's not too big and not too small. Exciting but easy. Like that meme on Instagram about finding the perfect place to live: “I want to live in a small town but it also has to have a bookstore, a fancy coffee shop, at least three good restaurants, and an indie movie theatre all within walking distance.” I want a holiday version of that.
I booked a flight to Canberra.
What follows, in this three-part newsletter series, is an alternative guide to the national capital. There will be a whole newsletter dedicated to the restaurants, cafes and bars of Canberra, such was my enthusiasm for the city's food scene, but I thought I'd start things off with some other non-foodie places of note and a walk through the trees.
Find the full guide in the upcoming print magazine Galah Issue 12: Earth, available for pre-order now.
There's a great book called Canberra written by journalist Paul Daley, who had not been excited to move to the capital, but then fell in love with it when he did.
"To live here is to coexist with the national treasures and monuments," wrote Daley. "And now the National Arboretum – a dream of (Walter Burley) Griffin's whereby endangered plants and trees are being cultivated for conservation, science and preservation – is growing on a rise above the lake … Canberra is full of monuments to its past and present. The arboretum symbolises optimism in its future."
So off to the future I went. It was 15 minutes away and parking was a breeze.
In 2003, bushfires ripped through south-west Canberra, taking lives, destroying homes and damaging more than two thirds of Canberra's pastures, plantations and nature parks, including wiping out a commercial pine plantation on a rise above Lake Burley Griffin. On this charred site the National Arboretum was created, an ambitious living symbol of rebirth.
The arboretum is as grand in scale – imagine 44,000 rare, endangered and iconic trees planted across 250 hectares – as it is ambitious in design. There are 100 single-species tree forests – mass plantings of one type of tree such as pin oaks, Wollemi pines or grass trees – broken up by secret gardens and a growing collection of individual trees. It's sort of like a giant zoo of trees that, viewed from the air, resembles a living patchwork quilt draped over the undulating landscape. It's staggeringly beautiful. And bold.
There are 20 kilometres of walking and bike trails through the forests. If you happen to have a horse, you can ride that through the forests, too. Next to the main building is a wonderful bonsai room (I swear the air in the room acts like a natural sedative), a much-loved children's acorn playground and a terraced grassy slope perfect for flying kites and picnics. I'm sure that if I lived here, I'd take up mountain biking and sail down the tree-flanked tracks every week. But even without a bike or a horse, the seven-kilometre explorer track through the trees in the southern forests was lovely.
Architect Aldo Giurgola, who co-designed Parliament House and oversaw its construction, described Canberra as “delightful” because it has been structured with trees. "No other city in the world has this sort of generosity of space," he said. It's certainly feeling generous to me up here at the arboretum.
Amalie Shawcross is Senior Director of Operations at the National Arboretum Canberra, in charge of the teams who manage the 250 hectare site. They look after 100 forests, various ornamental gardens, and the national bonsai collection. "It's like a museum, but for trees and plants," says Shawcross.
"I studied Landscape Architecture at uni, and when I graduated I was lucky enough to get a short-term graduate position here. I remember going through uni, coming to the arboretum site as it was being developed. A significant bushfire had decimated pine plantations, and then the ground was cleared. This whole area was just earth then."
"TCL were the original landscape architects... and their idea was to have a tapestry of forests across the landscape. The forests are monoculture forests, meaning that there's just one single species throughout each forest... that's quite unique and experimental in arboreta across the world. Usually there might be small stands of trees or different species. It's very unusual to have these blocks of forest."
"We've got trees from all over the world, and they're special and unique in terms of their conservation status, or they've got really important social or historical context in their country of origin.
"Down near the entrance, there is a forest of ginkgo trees – Ginkgo biloba – planted in a diamond grid pattern. Gaps in the forest relate to the footprint of major buildings in China's Forbidden City. Then the pattern for the grass tree forest, made up of about 70 Xanthorrhoea glauca trees – flows down the hillside among boulders to represent the flow of the tree’s resin.
"My favourite forest... that’s a really hard question! But if I had to pick just one, it would be the cork oak forest. This forest was actually planted well before the arboretum was established and the trees are over 100 years old. They were originally planted to test the viability of a commercial cork plantation for Canberra, but now as part of the arboretum, they are a magical forest, with its own unique biodiversity and an amazing quality of light.
"Being in there illustrates how many of the other forests in the arboretum might look and feel in the future. It's very special to be immersed within a forest of so many beautiful and ancient trees."
"The first trees were planted in 2007. Now we're starting to see canopies close in and create forests in the real sense. Rather than being small saplings that you can walk through and see across to the horizon, there's this feeling of a forest. Imagine what this place is going to be like in 20, 30, 50, and 100 years... that's the really special thing about what we do here, setting this site aside for future generations."
Brian Tunks was an ancient historian before he started designing glassware and ceramics for his much-loved Canberra label bisonhome. To show the vases at their best in his store, Tunks decided to fill them with dahlias from his garden. Customers kept buying the vases, insisting the flowers stay in them, and so he thought he should grow some more. Tunks now grows about 200 dahlias and collaborates with his friend Amanda Gillman, who grows many more at the nearby Pialligo Estate. Look out for upcoming pick-the-paddock events and workshops. Just another reason to visit Pialligo and this delightful store.
You know those travellers who have a big map on their wall, studded with pins to mark all the places they’ve visited? Well, I don't have one of those, but I do often buy a handmade mug while on holiday. As such, my cup drawer acts as a pseudo scrapbook and my morning coffee becomes a mini trip down memory lane. Canberra Potters and Watson Arts Centre represents about 40 ceramicists, with pieces for sale. I bought one lovely cup but coveted many more. Next door to the shop is an exhibition space with a thoughtful annual program, and out the back are studios for artists and ceramic classes.
Around the corner, a three-minute drive away, is a private, tiny gallery called Gallery of Small Things. It’s in a 1960s laundry outhouse, out the back of a house, down a driveway off a suburban street. When the sign's out and the driveway gates are open, so is the gallery.
I asked owner Anne Masters what made her want to start a gallery in her back garden. “Oh, it's just one of those things you do,” she replies. “One day at a marketing course I had to really quickly write down what my goal in life was. I wrote down 'own a gallery'. That's where it started.”
In 2017 Masters opened the tiny gallery space with the plan to curate exhibitions of small, affordable artwork from a range of local and interstate artists. Each year she holds two shows, and in between shows curations from a rotating stable of artists. She also works on her own ceramic practice in a room next to the gallery.
“It's part of our community,” she says. “The street really loves it. It's really important to have your neighbourhood feeling connected.” I thought about how rare it is to be invited into a tiny public space in the middle of a private suburban neighbourhood. I loved it, too.
This newsletter series is made in partnership with VisitCanberra.
