A community archive of Canberra & its neighboursPhotographs · Places · People
Lost. Canberra
Some places change.
The stories stay.

Explore by place

Canberra.

Explore the districts that make up the city, with a separate route into its rural places and reserves.

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Find your part of Canberra

9 areas to explore
Open pasture and scattered trees across Woden Valley, photographed from Red Hill before suburban development.Canberra district

Woden Valley

Soldier-settler properties, experimental housing and a planned town centre share the Woden landscape.

Explore Woden Valley Concrete tanks, timber formwork, valves and equipment at the Weston Creek sewerage treatment works under construction.Canberra district

Weston Creek

Old homestead sites and the nearby bushfire memorial preserve stories beneath and around Weston Creek's suburbs.

Explore Weston Creek Canberra district

Belconnen

Lake Ginninderra anchors a planned town whose school sites and naval history reach well beyond the suburbs.

Explore Belconnen Canberra district

Tuggeranong

A schoolhouse, a working homestead and the inauguration of Canberra's southern new town reveal Tuggeranong's layers.

Explore Tuggeranong Canberra district

Gungahlin

Ochre grounds, village buildings and watercourses reveal the layers beneath Gungahlin's modern development.

Explore Gungahlin Canberra district

Molonglo Valley

Molonglo's recent neighbourhoods belong to a longer story of Country, forestry, fire recovery and city planning.

Explore Molonglo Valley Braddon and Civic Centre from Mt Ainslie, Black Mountain at the rear.Canberra district

Inner North

Shelter trees, public-service cottages and a rural church reveal several beginnings in Canberra's inner north.

Explore Inner North J B Youngs store at Kingston with motor vehiclesCanberra district

Inner South

Kingston's power station, Forrest's early housing and Manuka's sporting places connect national construction with daily life.

Explore Inner South Country & villages

Rural ACT

An archive route through Birrigai, Tharwa, Tidbinbilla, Namadgi and Mount Stromlo.

Explore Rural ACT

New in the archive

An aerial view across Lake Burley Griffin, with the National Carillon in the foreground and the Captain Cook Memorial Jet beyond.

Lake Burley Griffin · c. 1970

The lake, before the trees filled in

A familiar sweep of water, with a much younger landscape around it.

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Workers assembling Mercedes-Benz buses on a factory floor, with exposed chassis and partly completed bus bodies.

Canberra transport · photograph date unknown

Before the first passenger

Canberra’s city buses, still taking shape on a Melbourne factory floor.

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Monaro Mall seen from an upper level, with escalators, shoppers and tables on the tiled floor below.

City / Civic · the mall opened 6 March 1963

Meet you at Monaro Mall

Escalators, shopping bags and a prime minister who could barely hear the speeches.

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Hotel Ainslie’s pale walls and tiled roofs beyond open ground, with scattered buildings and hills in the distance.

Hotel Ainslie · catalogue range 1921–1935

Hotel Ainslie, before the city filled in

A substantial hotel, a road at its door, and room to see right across to the hills.

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