Initially, buses from Kingston serviced the new suburbs in Woden Valley. The first stage of the Woden Depot, housing 44 buses was completed on 16 April 1974. A second stage, also housing 44 buses was completed on 14 July 1975. The Department of Works in association with Winterbottom, Moore and Associates designed Woden Depot. Miller, Milston and Ferris Pty Ltd (Engineers) were structural engineers and Leighton Contractors the builders.
Extension of the bus services into Tuggeranong gave rise to additional depot requirements met by the transfer of busports from the old Ainslie Depot. In 1983 the workshop was doubled to provide purpose-built facilities for the growing number of articulated buses as well of the standard buses. New fuelling and washing facilities were also provided. The then Department of Housing and Construction designed the extensions with Leighton being awarded for the contract.
Woden Depot closed in January 1997, however part of the site was reacquired by ACTION in 2009 and was used for a number of years to store recently delivered and withdrawn buses, as well as housing the Special Needs Transport Fleet.
The depot was demolished in 2019, and the site cleared, to enable construction of a new Woden Depot.
Source: “Canberra’s Engineering Heritage – Chapter Three” written by Ian G. Cooper, Leslie J. Pascoe and Ian Morrison
This page was last updated on 22 May 2021
