Canberra
Canberra is the Capital of Australia.
Contents
Geography
Canberra ranges from 550 to 700 m above sea level. The central area of Canberra is nestled on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin which was formed by building Scrivener Dam across the Molonglo River.
There are several large hills within the city including:
- Mount Ainslie
- Black Mountain
- Mount Majura
- Mount Mugga Mugga
- Mount Taylor
Weather
- BOM ACT and Canberra forecast
- BOM ACT and NSW current observations
- BOM Snowy Mountains Region forecast
- BOM ACT Weather radar at Captains Flat - This radar covers the ACT and the eastern side of the Snowy Mountains region.
- ScanACT Live Weather feed
Things to Do
- Corin Forest
- National Museum of Australia
- National Zoo and Aquarium
- New Parliament House
- Old Parliament House
- War Memorial
Accommodation
Getting Around
Air
Canberra International Airport is located in the suburb of Pialligo. (35°18'23.83"S, 149°11'25.00"E)
Canberra airport is co-located with the new Brand Depot factory outlet centre and the Brindabella Business Park.
Flight Operators
Flights are operated by Qantas, Virgin Blue and Brindabella Airlines. Note that only Qantas services the Canberra - Sydney route.
The airport does experience heavy fog at times, particularly in the mornings.
Getting there
Public transport from the airport to Civic is mainly by Canberra cabs and the Deanes Buslines Airliner shuttle bus.
Hire cars are available at the airport.
Bike
Canberra has an excellent network of Bike Paths and a number of mountain bike tracks. A Canberra cycleways map is available from most bike shops and the ACT Government Shopfronts
Bus
The main bus station for interstate travel is the Jolimont Centre in Civic which is located at:
- 65-67 Northbourne Ave
- Canberra City.
This building also houses Novotel Canberra.
It's longitude and Latitude are 35°16'40.20"S, 149° 7'44.38"E. WikiMapia link for the Jolimont Centre
The Jolimont Centre is a short walk to the Civic bus interchange where the ACTION buses run from. You can usually catch a Canberra cab at the front door of the centre.
Bus companies servicing Canberra
- Greyhound
- Lever Coachlines Snow Express - Day trips to the snowfields
- Murrays Travel - Interstate travel and day trips to the snow
Rail
The Canberra Railway Station is located at
- Wentworth Ave
- Kingston ACT 2604
Trains are operated by Countrylink.
You can contact the Countrylink Travel Centre on Phone: (02) 6208 9700; +612 6208 9707 (international)
Public transport to and from the railway station is available by ACTION buses or Canberra cabs.
Taxi
There is currently only one taxi company in Canberra - Canberra cabs. They can be booked by phoning 132227 or at their website.
They have recently installed an Automated Speech Recognition System for taking bookings by phone. This has been reported in the newspapers as being a less than perfect solution with reportedly many people having their cabs turn up late or not at all. Hopefully the teething problems with this system will be ironed out soon. In the meantime it is prudent to make sure you book a time for a cab well before you need to be at your destination in case you need to ring and "encrouage" it along.
Media
Newspapers
The major newspaper in Canberra is the Canberra Times. The Canberratimes publishes snow reports during winter.
Radio
Television
The local Free to Air channels are
- ABC
- SBS
- Prime (Channel 7 affiliate)
- Win (Channel 9 affiliate)
- Southern Cross Ten (Channel 10 affiliate)
Some Channels display Snow reports during the Snow season.
