Tourist Drive 4

National Sports and Recreation Tour

From the City Interchange, head north up Northbourne Avenue, turning left into Mouat Street. First stop is the Old Canberra Inn – built in 1857! Back on Mouat Street, take a left again at Ginninderra Drive. Turn left into Braybrooke Street, left onto Masterman and then right onto Leverrier. You’ll now find yourself at the Australian Institute of Sport. If you continue to the end of Leverrier Street, and turn left onto Battye Street, you’ll find yourself at Canberra Stadium – home ground of the Canberra Raiders (NRL) and ACT Brumbies (Super 14).

Returning along Battye Street, take a left into Purdie Street and you’ll find the Bruce Campus of the Canberra Institute of Technology. The CIT is the Canberra equivalent of TAFE and is a tertiary education institution. Turn right out onto Haydon Drive and left into College Street. You’ll find the University of Canberra on the right hand side of the road. Once you go over the hill of College Street, you will find the Canberra Indoor Swimming and Aquatic Centre, or CISAC. This fairly recent facility caters for the Belconnen region and features indoor swimming and fitness facilities. Turning right onto Eastern Valley Way, right onto Aikman Drive and left onto Emu Bank, you’ll find the AMF Bowling Centre.

Continuing along Emu Bank, past the takeaway outlets and scenic Lake Ginninderra on your right, you’ll come across Westfield Belconnen. If you can look past the hideous exterior, you’ll find quite a variety of stores, with something for everybody. Anchor tenants include Myer, JB Hifi, Kmart, Rebel Sports, Dan Murphy’s, Coles, Woolworths, Hoyts and Toys R Us.

Heading back out of the mall, head back onto Emu Bank, right onto Joynton Smith Drive and right onto Coulter Drive. At this point in the drive, we once would have directed you up Southern Cross Drive and Parkwood Road out to Ginninderra Falls. This once popular recreation spot has closed down due to changes in ownership in what is a private property that was once home to kayaking, swimming and canyoning. Unfortunately a new owner could not be found to keep it operating.

At the end of Coulter Drive, turn right into Ginninderra Drive, left into William Slim Drive and left again into Owen Dixon Drive. Take a right at Kuringa Drive and a left into Barton Highway. Turn left again and visit the Wallaroo Wines on Wallaroo Road. Further down here you will also find Gooromon Ponds, also home to an Equestrian Centre.

On the other side of the Barton Highway you’ll find Hall. Once an outer village, now almost one of the Canberra suburbs! Antiques and more, with markets on the first sunday of each month.

Head back along the highway into Canberra, and take a left into Gold Creek Road. Gold Creek features Federation Square, Cockington Green, the National Dinosaur Museum, the Australian Reptile Centre and the Gold Creek Country Club.

Back onto the Highway, take a left into Randwick Road to find the Canberra Racecourse – Thoroughbred Park. Heading to the end of Randwick Road and turning right onto Flemington Road, you’ll come across something EPIC – Exhibition Park in Canberra. Home to many a rug sale and computer fair, this is also home to the Summernats car festival each January and the Royal Canberra Show during late February.

The last stop on Tourist Drive 4 is All Saints Church in Ainslie. Turn right from Flemington Road onto the Federal Highway. Continue onto Northbourne Avenue, then take a left just before the Rex Hotel into Ipima Street. Head straight through the lights onto Cowper Street and you’ll find the church on the corner of Bonney Street.

That’s it! To get back to the city, just return along Cowper and Ipima Streets and left onto Northbourne Avenue.