News - Planning & development

On page 2 of Gunsmoke 16 (16th February 1996) the article states:

“The GCC continues to have the development of the Town Centre high on its agenda. We trust that that the Community representatives will continue to be part of the ongoing discussions. What is of concern is that there has been no thought or support from ministers in the ACT Government to ensure that the Town Centre will be economically viable. There has been no announcements made guaranteeing the presence of a Government Department in the first stage of the development”.

Eleven years down the track we can not see any real commitment from ACT Government ministers to employment in the Gungahlin Town Centre.

We can see extensive office construction at the Airport, Civic, Belconnen, Barton and other areas of Canberra; but Gungahlin continues to be overlooked and kept in the “let them wait” pigeonhole.

Unfortunately planning in the Gungahlin Town Centre is gradually taking away land that would be suitable for establishing suitable employment facilities. The land is being sold off for residential development and even now there is a problem identifying blocks suitable for the construction of a reasonable sized building to house a government department.

The ACT government has stated that they are exploring options for attracting employment to Gungahlin. Hopefully they will be able to provide more information when Simon Corbell and John Hargreaves attend the GCC meeting on the 11th April 2007.