Month: March 2025

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

Canberra has more playgrounds than any other state or local council in Australia.

And each day, plenty of work goes into ensuring they are safe and ready for play.

Playground Safety Inspector Lawrence is part of a City Services team working to assess Canberra’s 500+ playgrounds.

Lawrence’s team of six inspects district parks twice a week, community play spaces weekly and smaller neighbourhood parks every fortnight.

Lawrence and his team use three main assessment methods.

Level 1 – visual inspection

In this initial inspection, workers check the area for sharps, vandalism and major equipment faults.

They collect any litter and rake bark into heavy-use areas to keep the playground clean and ready to use.

Level 1 inspections occur bi-weekly to fortnightly, depending on the size and use of the playground.

Lawrence assesses a timber post for repair

Level 2 – detailed inspection

A Level 2 inspection occurs monthly or bi-monthly.

The team tests all playground equipment for wear and tear, operational defects, deterioration and any other faults.

They also test for hazards, including potential for head, torso and finger entrapment.

They check timber posts, look for swing chain entrapment and measure the height of swing sets to ensure a safe distance between the bottom of the seat and the ground.

Depending on the risk associated with the fault or hazard, the playground may need to be fenced off or temporarily closed for repairs.

Finger entrapment testing

Level 3 – independent assessor inspection

Qualified external assessors carry out Level 3 inspections annually.

These assessors are independent from the ACT Government and have an engineering background.

The assessor compares each playground to the Australian Playground Standards.

This ensures equipment is safe and the existing process of ongoing safety inspections is compliant.

External assessor Grant from Playtest conducting surface impact testing

Get involved

The community is the most important playground safety inspector, so if you see a potential safety hazard, please complete a job request via the Fix My Street online tool.

Provide as much detail as possible on the location and issue when completing the request.

Head entrapment testing

Find out more about Canberra’s playgrounds.

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

The development application for the new public school in Whitlam has been lodged, marking a key milestone in the project.

The ACT Government has committed $76.8 million to deliver a new school, which is expected to open for the 2026 school year.

Once open, the school will span preschool to year 6 and include an early childhood education and care centre.

It will accommodate up to 780 students with 130 childhood education and care places.

The new school will help cater to the growing population in Whitlam and will be in the heart of the new residential suburb and community.

It will be built adjacent to John Gorton Drive on the corner of Hazel Hawke Avenue and Alice Moyle Way, alongside local shops.

This location provides convenient access to the local neighbourhood via nearby public transport stops, bike paths and footpaths.

View a flythrough of how the new school will look.

Information about the new school is available at builtforcbr.act.gov.au

Regular updates are also available on the Whitlam School web page: education.act.gov.au/Whitlam_School

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

Canberrans can expect to see many new faces in healthcare settings around the city.

A new cohort of over 360 graduate health professionals have joined Canberra Health Services (CHS) in recent weeks.

There are over 200 nurses and midwives, 96 junior medical officer interns and 59 allied health graduates starting their first year of supported practice in Canberra’s public health system.

These graduate programs help build and develop the city’s public health workforce.

Graduates will experience a broad range of specialities across their rotations which span Canberra Health Services.

Placements include:

• Canberra Hospital
• North Canberra Hospital
• University of Canberra Hospital
• justice health
• outpatient clinics
• community health care centres
• Hospital in the Home
• locations in south-east NSW.

Shreejana and Ainslie are two of the new graduates starting at Canberra Hospital this week.

Between them they will be rotating through the geriatrics, oncology, cardiology and orthopaedic wards.

For registered nurse Shreejana, this career was a childhood dream.

“I’m feeling very nervous, as well as excited,” she said.

“Seeing all the support and the guidance that I will be receiving from the CHS team, I’m very, very much looking forward to this journey.”

Enrolled nurse Ainslie completed her 18-month certification at CIT.

“I wanted to care for people and give back to my community,” she said.

“Honestly, it’s the little things. It’s when you ask someone “how can I help you?” It’s giving them a cup of tea, giving them coffee, giving them warm blanket. The little things that put a smile on someone’s face and just knowing that you’ve made them happy.”

In a Canberra Health Services first, three cohorts of graduate nurses are undergoing orientation at the same time.

This includes:

• the graduate Transition to Practice Program
• North Canberra Hospital’s existing graduate program
• the Novice Nurse Consolidation Program, which offers an alternative pathway to join the nursing workforce for those who may only be able to work part-time or hold a working visa.

“The new starters bring a great amount of enthusiasm and energy into our services and teams, and it is hugely fulfilling for all our staff to support and guide these new health professionals at a critical time in their career,” Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery at North Canberra Hospital Judy Ryall said.

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

ACT Children and Young People Commissioner Jodie Griffiths-Cook is on a mission to help Canberra’s children and young people understand their rights.

In her role – which is independent from government and part of the ACT Human Rights Commission – she consults and speaks with kids every day.

“My role principally involves being able to engage directly with children and young people and find out what is important to them, then using that to try to influence public policy and create change that will hopefully make Canberra a better place for children and young people generally,” Jodie said.

She does this in a variety of ways, including creating simply written resources that can be used in schools and more broadly.

She regularly updates a dedicated section of the commission’s website with targeted, trustworthy information for kids, teens and young people.

Jodie also distributes the monthly Rights in ACTion newsletter to further inform ACT children and young people about their rights and wellbeing.

From school visits to Instagram posts, finding ways to tailor sometimes complex information for different age groups is important.

“Children and young people have a right to access information they can trust and understand,” she said.

“It really humanises things when you’re able to speak in a language that is clearly understood by kids.”

The Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 highlighted a particular need for this.

“We saw a lot of communications going out to adults but very little being targeted to children and young people. For us, that really started the process of thinking mindfully about what we can do to shift that, both in terms of direct communications and modelling – trying to encourage others to do the same,” she said.

“If we actually think about some of the decision-making that happens – so many of our decisions impact young people in ways that we perhaps don’t consider,” she said.

Having been Commissioner for eight years now, Jodie says the discussions she has with children and young people are most rewarding.

“Some of those conversations are just absolute gold when it comes to what young people already intrinsically understand about their rights and about those sometimes competing rights that we all grapple with,” she said.

“I can almost take off my own commissioner hat and give it to some of them!”

Particularly engaged young people can also get directly involved with the commission. This in turn provides important feedback.

“We started a new youth advisor role, pitched for young people aged 16–25 years who have left school. We bring young people in for six months where they are looking for opportunities that will help them decide and pursue their career direction. From them we get a lot of intel about the kind of language to use, and the kind of things that are of interest to young people. We also take in work experience students in years 9-12,” she said.

A range of child-friendly resources to help children and young people understand the Human Rights Act will be launched in March this year – on the Act’s 20^th anniversary.

Visit actkids.act.gov.au for more information.

Jodie wants all Canberra children and young people to know her door is always open – whatever they have to say.

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

Applications are now open for three grant programs that support local climate change, environmental and sustainability projects.

Canberrans can apply for grants of up to $75,000 per project to help turn their ideas into reality.

The grants assist community groups, schools, organisations and individuals to deliver projects that:

• promote sustainable living and emissions reduction
• help make Canberra climate-ready
• promote biodiversity and community participation in conservation projects.

The ACT Food Co-op is a community owned-and-run bulk grocery store and cafe, events venue and community hub.

Receiving a grant helped the Co-op reduce emissions and cut operating costs.

“Grants funding from the ACT Government has enabled us to convert from an expensive high-emissions gas kitchen to a cheaper zero-emissions electric kitchen. Our army of kitchen helpers are now safer, our bills are cheaper and our environmental footprint is smaller – a real win,” Chairperson Lucaya Rich said.

2024 ACT Environmental Grants Program

This program offers up to $350,000 in total funding.

Grant recipients have the opportunity to:

• address environmental issues that concern them
• restore and conserve natural places that are special to them
• engage other community members to do the same.

For more information and to start your application, visit the ACT Environment website.

To hear from previous recipients, watch the ACT Environmental Grants recipient stories.

Nature in the City: Cooling Your Suburb Grants Program

Additional grants are available through the Nature in the City: Cooling your Suburb Grants Program.

Offering upto $150,000 in 2024 project funding, these grants support projects that help keep Canberra cool in a changing climate.

Project ideas could include:

• installing a shady garden in a hot urban area
• replacing a solid concrete pathway with water-permeable pavers to reduce rainwater run-off.

For more information and to start your application, visit Everyday Climate Choices.

Community Zero Emissions Grants Program

This program offers up to $75,000 in funding per project in 2024.

Funding will support community projects that:

• reduce emissions
• increase community resilience to climate impacts and inspire change.

For more information and to start your application, visit Everyday Climate Choices.

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

A new parent portal will be rolled out across all ACT public schools this year, making it easier for parents and carers to engage with their school.

Parent Portal is a secure online platform for sharing student information between schools and parents and carers.

Key information – spanning preschool to year 12 – will be housed on the one system.

The portal has capacity for parents and carers to:

• notify their school if their child is sick
• book parent-teacher interviews
• receive their child’s academic reports (including past reports)
• receive their school newsletter
• receive messages from their child’s teachers
• see their child’s student timetable
• get daily notices of school activities
• update contact details
• make payments.

The introduction of the portal will be phased. At first it will complement existing school communication channels. Eventually it will be the key online communication tool used by all ACT public schools.

In term 4 2023, the portal was successfully rolled out at nine northside schools in a pilot program.

More than 2000 parents at these schools are already using Parent Portal.

Parents and carers with children across multiple schools will not need to sign up to the system twice.

They can easily add a student to their account once those schools have access to Parent Portal.

It is planned that all ACT public schools will have access to Parent Portal in a gradual rollout by term 2, 2024.

“Council’s P&C delegates were really impressed to see a recent demonstration of the Parent Portal, and its capabilities. Parents are looking forward to the roll-out of the portal to their local schools, it will make it easier for them to keep track of what’s happening, from explaining absences, excursions and making payments. Parents will be cheering to not have to dig through school bags for lost notes,” said Executive Officer ACT Council of Parents & Citizens Associations Veronica Elliott.

As Parent Portal becomes available at each school, information will be provided to explain the benefits and how families can access the platform.

School front office staff can assist parents and carers who can’t access the online tool, or who may need assistance.

For more information on beginning the sign-up process, visit the ACT Education Directorate website: https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/parent-portal.

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR

Construction is underway on upgrades to Gordon’s Point Hut Pond playground and Chisholm’s Alston Street playground.

Both upgrades follow community consultation and will provide Canberrans with better places to play.

Work is taking place between the hours of 7 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday. If required, work may be undertaken on weekends between 8 am and 4 pm.

Both play spaces will feature First Nations artwork by Bradley Mapiva Brown.

Point Hut Pond playground, Gordon

Staged work has started at the junior play area and will move to the Maliyan nest.

Point Hut Pond District Park – including the toilets, picnic facilities and barbecues – will still be open during the construction period.

The basketball court will remain accessible with partial closures only.

Junior play area key features:

• nature play including stone and timber steppers with artwork and timber balancing stilts
• play opportunities including a vortex climber and a rocker
• new softfall throughout the play area
• retaining all existing equipment from the playground.

Maliyan nest area key features:

• Maliyan nest climber with slide, suitable for junior, pre-teen and teen play
• slide and scramble slope
• nature play elements including timber and boulder steppers
• informal seating opportunities with sandstone blocks.

There will also be more seating added at the basketball court, interpretive signage, cultural design elements and landscaping.

Find out more and view designs

Alston Street playground, Chisholm

Exciting additions are coming to Alston Street playground.

Key features:

• nature play with balancing and climbing elements including stone and timber steppers and recycled fallen tree trunks
• all ages and abilities accessible spinner and nest swing with softfall beneath both items
• play opportunities including climbing poles, a pommel walk and vortex as well as a brown snake sculpture to climb on
• retaining existing equipment from the playground including the combination unit, swings and rockers
• picnic tables, shelter and seating
• existing shade sail retained and improved with cultural artwork on its posts as well as on the upgraded basketball hoop and backboard
• concrete path with animal imprints
• nine new trees and landscaping including groundcover, native grasses and shrubs
• improved drainage throughout the playground and improvements to the carpark surface.

Alston Street playground will be closed while upgrades are underway.

The closest alternative playgrounds are the Caroline Chisholm playground and the Chisholm shops playground.

Find out more and view designs

---

Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:

Subscribe to Our CBR