Category: MIL-OSI

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In brief:

• Canberra is expecting hotter temperatures, more heatwaves and less predictable rainfall.
• Creating a climate-wise garden helps keep your home cooler and contributes to reducing urban heat.
• This story has tips for creating a climate-wise garden for summer.

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Spring is a great time of year to plan your summer garden.

Whether you have a large yard, a small courtyard or balcony, you can create a beautiful garden that:

• thrives in local conditions
• helps keep your space cool in hot weather
• is a habitat for native animals and insects.

By planning your climate-wise garden, you can lower the temperature around your home. This can help you save energy and reduce your cooling bills during the hot months.

Choose plants for Canberra’s climate

Canberra’s climate is changing. This means we will have:

• hotter temperatures
• more heatwaves
• less predictable rainfall.

Roads, footpaths and buildings absorb the sun’s heat and makes urban areas hotter than nearby green spaces.

Living infrastructure (like the plants and trees in your garden) can reduce urban heat during hotter weather and heatwaves.

A climate-wise garden has plants that consider sun, shade and water needs, and frost tolerance.

The ACT Government’s Canberra Plant Selector is a free online tool that can help you choose the best plants for your climate-wise garden.

You can search for plants suited to Canberra’s climate based on sun, shade, frost tolerance and water needs. Not sure what exactly you’re looking for? Use the handy quiz feature to get some recommendations tailored to your space.

Find the Canberra Plant Selector tool here.

Create a shady haven

Don’t have space for a tree? Adding greenery to a westerly facing wall can help keep it cool during those hot summer afternoons. You can also consider an overhead trellis or placing some plants on your balcony or veranda. Another option is to install a shade structure, such as a sail.

• Planting a tree in a hot space helps, but what about the ground surface underneath? If it’s compacted dirt, artificial grass, or pavers, some of the cooling effects of the tree are lost. Think about understory plants that might work well in your space. If you can’t plant directly into the ground, consider pots or planters.

Use water wisely

Planting only grass or groundcover won’t help you beat the heat. Grass and other forms of ground cover are coolest when irrigated or combined with shrubs and trees that also provide shade.

• Consider getting a rain tank to capture runoff from your roof. You can use this water to keep your lawn and garden irrigated and cooler in hot conditions.

If you already have trees and shade in your space, installing a small pond or other water feature can help keep things even cooler. Ponds can also provide habitat for frogs and insects, as well as providing a welcome respite for local wildlife.

Help keep our city cooler

Having a climate-wise garden isn’t just about keeping your own home cool. Landowners, builders and the community play an important role in reducing Canberra’s urban heat.

The ACT Government is helping the Territory to adapt to the effects of climate change through living infrastructure like trees and plants.

As Canberra’s urban environment grows and evolves, the ACT Government is committed to ensuring our tree canopy and living infrastructure also expands.

By 2045, across Canberra’s urban footprint, the ACT Government aims to achieve:

• 30 per cent tree canopy cover or other forms of living infrastructure, such as green roofs, shrub beds, wetlands and rain gardens.
• 30 per cent permeable surfaces, such as lawns, gravel and porous paving.

Canberra’s Living Infrastructure Plan outlines how we can nurture and grow our natural assets. The Plan will grow our urban forest, make our city and buildings more climate resilient and empower the community with the tools and resources to become climate ready.

Read more like this:

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In brief:

• The ACT Government will build a 650-metre loop path in Palmerville Heritage Park.
• Palmerville Heritage Park is in north Belconnen.
• This will help people better explore the area.

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The ACT Government will build a new loop path through Palmerville Heritage Park.

It will be approximately 650 metres long.

The park is a popular open space in north Belconnen.

It sits in an historic cultural landscape near McKellar, Evatt and Giralang.

This location represents a connection to the early rural settlement of the ACT. There is evidence of past land use in this area as a rural settlement from the early 1800s to the 1950s.

Canberrans have requested the continuation of the park’s existing walking trail to create a loop.

This will help people better explore the area.

Ginninderra Creek runs along the park’s east side. As the area is flood prone, this will influence the final alignment of the path and the materials used to build it.

Once heritage and environment approvals are complete, the final alignment will be released ahead of construction procurement.

Construction procurement is expected to begin in early 2025.

Find out more about the path on the City Services website.

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In brief:

• Plans to upgrade the Watson Health Precinct are moving ahead.
• There will be new and improved facilities offering vital rehabilitation services.
• A new drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be built.

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The Watson Health Precinct upgrades are moving ahead.

Plans have been conditionally approved and a Head Contractor appointed.

Important upgrades

Community health organisations have provided vital rehabilitation services from the precinct for almost 20 years.

New facilities will replace the site’s ageing infrastructure. This will help these organisations ensure a welcoming, secure and inclusive environment for people as they recover.

It will also allow them to double their capacity in the future.

The ACT Government will build new facilities in the precinct for:

• the Ted Noffs Foundation – who offer live-in alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services for young people
• Marymead CatholicCare – who provide a residential care facility for young people with mental health conditions.

“Seeking support for drug and alcohol treatment is a massive step for any young person to undertake. Having a space that is designed and created to allow for young people to feel safe, comfortable and promotes treatment removes one barrier to young people accessing support. We welcome the ACT Government’s commitment to improve the treatment options for young people in the ACT,” the Ted Noffs Foundation said.

“Young people struggling with mental health concerns deserve and will appreciate the new welcoming and fresh interiors, inspiring the sense of new beginnings and motivation to work towards their identified mental health recovery goals,” Marymead CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn said.

A new facility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

The precinct will also expand. A new alcohol and other drugs rehabilitation facility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be built.

It will be a residential facility with 24 beds.

Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services (Winnunga) will run the service.

Winnunga has led the facility’s design and will be responsible for its construction and operation.

This partnership will help ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people receive culturally appropriate care for the best possible recovery.

Monarch Building Solutions has been engaged as the Head Contractor for the work on the existing services.

They will work with Winnunga and their Head Contractor as they build their new facility.

Construction is expected to be completed in early 2026.

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In brief:

• The Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection pilot provides a weekly collection of food scraps and garden waste.
• The pilot is being expanded to include more than 1,150 households in multi-unit developments in Tuggeranong and Belconnen.
• Participating households will be formally notified of their involvement in the coming weeks.

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The ACT Government is expanding the Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection pilot. From September, the pilot will include more than 1,150 households in multi-unit developments in Belconnen and Tuggeranong.

The FOGO pilot began in November 2021. Each week food scraps and garden waste are collected from about 5,300 households in:

• Belconnen
• Bruce
• Cook
• Macquarie.

From September, the collection pilot will service more Canberrans, including:

• 772 households in Belconnen
• 400 households in Tuggeranong.

These homes will be in multi-development units.

About one-third of items put into household rubbish bins in the ACT is food. This is equal to around 26,000 tonnes of food waste going to landfill each year.

Since the pilot began, it has diverted more than 3,475 tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill. This material has been turned into valuable compost. This supports a circular economy within the ACT and reduces the amount of harmful greenhouse gas emissions that come from our landfill.

The Belconnen and Tuggeranong households added to the pilot will continue to provide information. This data will inform a future Canberra-wide rollout of FOGO. It will also provide insights to help improve waste management practices for multi-unit developments.

Participating households will receive a letter to announce their involvement. There will also be information sessions over the coming weeks. Details will be provided to residents and building managers on the correct use of FOGO in their buildings.

Those households will get an easy-to-use kitchen caddy with compostable liner bags for food scraps. They will also get access to a light green lidded FOGO bin within their shared waste enclosures. There will be no changes to regular bin collections within the expansion areas. ­

For more information on the FOGO pilot, visit: www.cityservices.act.gov.au.

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Twelve Canberra projects have received a grant through the Community Garden Grants Program.

They will each receive a share of $100,000 in total funding.

The benefits of community gardens

Community gardens offer opportunities for local climate action.

The program also helps Canberrans connect and learn in a shared space.

The gardens give easy access to fresh produce and increase the resilience of local food production.

Havelock Community Garden

The Canberra Student Housing Co-operative is a 2024 recipient.

They plan to use their grant funds to turn the Havelock Community Garden in Turner into a communal food production space.

This will make it a place for community connection and socialising.

They also see it as a means of engaging and educating the student community on growing and maintaining a garden.

“Education is a big part of what we’re trying to do. Through the grant, we can carry out all these projects we wouldn’t have been able to do before,” Cooperative Director Benjamin Mason said.

While volunteers and skills are plentiful, cost has been a barrier.

“This grant means we will be spending less of our budget on the inventory required to run the garden. It means we can now start gardening,” Benjamin said.

Growing their own food will bring substantial cost benefits, as well as environmental and social ones.

“We have our own bulk food storage that all residents can access as part of the housing co-operative. The overarching plan is to eat the food from the garden, but anything we can’t eat fresh will be used in our pickling program,” he said.

2024 Community Garden Grant funding streams

There are two funding streams in 2024.

In Stream 1, there is a total of $40,000 to:

• improve and enhance existing gardens
• build non-food-related gardens.

In Stream 2, there is a total of $60,000 to:

• set up large-scale food production community gardens
• build significant infrastructure to increase food production in existing gardens.

2024 grant recipients

Stream 1:

• Canberra Environment Centre: $7,835.76 to boost capacity to produce food in their community garden and increase resilience to climate change
• Canberra Organic Growers Society Inc: $2,000.00 to buy zero-emission power tools for the Charnwood Community Garden
• Holy Spirit Parish, Gungahlin: $2,641.79 to enhance the productivity and sustainability of their existing gardens
• The Food Cooperative Shop: $2,872.72 to install vertical garden infrastructure and hold composting workshops
• Red Hill Primary School P&C: $4,068.65 to plant a bush tucker garden and enhance existing food gardens
• Church of Christ Ainslie ACT Inc: $3,922.60 to improve seed raising capabilities, build more garden beds and create a frog bog along with native plantings
• Canberra Student Housing Co-operative: $2,239.00 to convert the Havelock Community Garden into a communal food production space
• Miles Franklin Primary School P&C: $8,000.00 to build the Gambara Garden, complete with fruit trees and vegetable gardens
• Scullin Community Group Inc: $2,832.84 to plant an edible sensory hedge at the Scullin Shops.

Stream 2:

• Old Narrabundah Community Council: $18,947.00 to install secure fencing around their newly renovated gardens
• Canberra Muslim Community Inc: $22,000.00 to build the GM Multicultural Community Garden at Gungahlin Mosque
• SEE Change Belconnen: $22,470.41 to build the demonstration verge garden network. This will build verge gardens in five locations across Belconnen.

The Community Garden Grants Program began in 2015. It has since supported 87 community garden projects.

Find more information on the Community Garden Grants program and this year’s recipients at the Everyday Climate Choices website.

^{The Canberra Student Housing Co-operative plans to use their grant funds to turn the Havelock Community Garden in Turner into a communal food production space.}

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In brief:

• Savannah McGuirk takes PhD learnings to solve real word problems with a start-up.
• She seeks advice to make sure her business is compliant.
• Advice from the Access Canberra Business Assist Team confirms she’s on track.

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While completing her PhD, Savannah McGuirk discovered an industry problem that was yet to be solved.

With her research pointing the way, Savannah launched her business, Remote Water Analytics.

From research to start-up

“Research is funny like that,” Savannah said. “You never know where you going to end up.”

“I started out my PhD looking at carbon levels in soil, but soon discovered that soil moisture was impacting remote sensing satellite and drone data for carbon monitoring. What I also found, was there is no consistency in methods for monitoring soil moisture levels with optical satellite data.”

That’s when things shifted for Savanah. She saw the application of her scientific research for the purpose of solving real world industry problems.

Remote Water Analytics is in its infancy as Savannah finalises her PhD, but she’s already working with some clients. She’s using state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies, like satellites and drones alongside advanced data science, AI and machine learning to pull comprehensive insights into soil and water conditions.

“We can do soil moisture mapping as well as long and short-term soil monitoring. We can also provide geospatial data visualisation. Satellite data gives us near real-time access to accurate and actionable information,” she said.

Savannah said they can help small scale farmers or large agricultural operations to adopt more sustainable practices.

“To be honest, I was surprised there wasn’t already a product in market that could affordably, reliably and efficiently test soil moisture remotely.

“Soil sampling and testing is an expensive and labour-intensive endeavour, particularly over large areas when we’re dealing with large agricultural holdings.”

But it’s not just agricultural applications that Remote Water Analytics can deal with. Savannah is currently working with a local Canberra civil construction company who are developing a new Canberra suburb.

“Construction companies can’t work when it’s wet without damaging the surfaces which they have already carefully prepared. By accurately monitoring soil moisture levels, we can get them back on site as quickly and safely as possible after rain, ultimately helping them get their job done faster and realise real financial savings.”

ACT Government business support

Earlier this year, Savannah attended the ACT Government’s first CBR Small Business Expo. Curious to see what was on offer, she came across the Access Canberra Business Assist Team.

“I overheard them speaking to someone else, and they sounded helpful,” she said.

“It got me thinking about whether there were any permits or licences I need to operate a soil and water management business.”

Like a true Canberran, and scientist, Savannah was keen to know that she was following all the correct processes and had all the right licences and permits.

After hearing Savannah’s story, the Business Assist Team got to work on her behalf, seeking advice across government, including from the ACT Environmental Protection Authority.

Kim from the Access Canberra Business Assist Team said they were glad to provide advice to Savannah.

“Savannah’s business is a bit niche, and we were able to give her peace of mind that she was compliant with necessary regulations,” said Kim.

Savannah agreed.

“It was reassuring to be able to access the team by email and get confirmation that I had done the right things and was compliant in running my business,” she said.

As for what’s next for Savannah, her business is one of 24 across Australia participating in a business accelerator program run by the Commonwealth Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

“It’s a three-month accelerator program to support drought-resilience in Australian agriculture.

“I’m a scientist, so I’m looking forward to learning many of the skill sets I need to run and operate a successful start-up,” she said.

To find out more about the Access Canberra Business Assist Team that helped Savannah, contact the team.

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• Here is a list of fun experiences in Canberra for you and your toddler.

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The Discovery Centre at the National Museum of Australia

Little Griffins Play & Learn 

Curious Corner at the National Gallery of Australia

Little Faces at the National Portrait Gallery

PlayUP at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

National Arboretum Canberra

Playgrounds

Yarralumla Play Station

National Dinosaur Museum

Giggle & Wiggle

Questacon

The Australian National Botanic Gardens

Canberra Zoo and Aquarium

In brief:

• A new park on Aspinall Street, Watson is now open.
• It provides families a vibrant new space to play and learn more about Ngunnawal culture.
• It is part of the Section 76 Watson site, which will include new housing.

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The new Maliyan Park in north Watson is now open.

It is located on Aspinall Street, near the Negus Crescent intersection.

This new neighbourhood park celebrates Ngunnawal culture through:

• vibrant artwork
• new trees and plantings
• diverse play equipment.

It was designed with the aim of sharing Ngunnawal culture while enjoying time outdoors.

The park’s centrepiece is a Maliyan (wedge-tailed eagle) structure. This was designed by Ngunnawal artist Lynnice Church.

The impressive structure signifies the Maliyan’s importance to the traditional custodians. It is believed she was chosen to create resources for Ngunnawal people.

Other artworks include native animals and insects designed by Ngunnawal artists Jazz and Krystal Matthews from Wilay Designs.

The park also features a selection of endemic plants with a special and practical connection to Ngunnawal community and culture.

Visitors will find play equipment for a range of ages and play styles. There is nature play, swings, slides, climbers and spinners.

Older children and adults can make use of exercise equipment and a kick-around space.

Maliyan Park is a unique space for local families to play, relax and learn more about Ngunnawal culture.

It is part of the Section 76 Watson site that will provide for:

• approximately 200 new homes
• a demonstration housing project of approximately 20 to 30 homes while keeping high-quality trees to continue to provide habitat for wildlife and reduce urban heat.

Section 76 was developed in consultation with the community. This includes input from the Dhawura Ngunnawal Caring for Country Committee.

^{There is play equipment for a range of ages and play styles.}

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Designs have been released for the new South Tuggeranong Health Centre in Conder.

The Development Application (DA) has also been publicly notified.

This marks a significant milestone in the project, which will ensure South Tuggeranong residents have access to more health services closer to home.

This follows extensive consultation last year, with the designs reflecting community input.

The DA lodgement gives the community another opportunity to provide feedback on the designs.

South Tuggeranong Health Centre services

The centre will feature consultation rooms and a multi-purpose space.

These will support a range of specialities and non-government organisations to deliver services.

These will include:

• paediatrics
• pathology collection
• dementia care
• diabetes clinics
• falls and falls injury prevention
• chronic disease programs
• a virtual care space for people to access specialist services closer to where they live.

A head contractor will soon be selected.

Construction is expected to start early next year and be completed towards the end of 2025.

More health centres for Canberra

Early design work and planning is underway for new health centres in:

• North Gungahlin
• the Inner South
• West Belconnen.

The ACT Government recently completed consultation on the services for the centres in the Inner South and North Gungahlin.

You can view the plans and provide feedback until 9 September 2024.

Visit Planning ACT.

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