Suburb of Canberra


Or to be more precise, satellite city of Canberra. You see, the city of Canberra consists of sub-cities; Belconnen, Civic, Tuggeranong, Woden, and the new Gungahlin. Each sub city itself has its own suburbs. The suburbs of Tuggeranong are: The name Tuggeranong itself comes from an aboriginal word "Togranon", meaning "Cold Plains". As with the rest of Canberra, Tuggeranong has a dry, mountain climate. The plains are a broad valley between Mount Taylor and Tuggeranong Hill through which the Tuggeranong creek once ran.

The original inhabitants were the nomadic Ngunnawal people, who treasured Canberra (Nganbra) for it's Autumn migrations of bogong moths. The moths would be attracted by large fires, and then trapped in nets and eaten.

Tuggeranong was the first part of Canberra to be discovered by white explorers. In 1820, explorers were led to Pine Island on the Murrumbidgee river. The discovery of the river meant that colonists would have a reliable water supply.

Tuggeranong soon became a sheep station. In 1825 it was settled by convicts labouring under James Ainslie. 60 settlers were living in the area by 1828. When the entire region was acquired by the Federal Government in 1912 for the building of the new Australian capital, the sheep station remained. Gradually, from 1974, roads and houses were built in Kambah. The spread of Tuggeranong has continued at a rapid pace, becoming the fastest growing urban centre in Australia during the late 1980s. Today, some of the original farm buildings still stand amongst the houses.

The Tuggeranong town centre is recognisable for its characteristic red rooves. The majority of the town centre was built between 1988 and 1992, all in a similar style. Walls are thick cement, and often protrude out of the buildings, circular windows are common, and many buildings have large open balconies. The effect is something like an under-done baroque style, with obvious lego influences. The ones with the red bricks.

The most notable landmark in Tuggeranong is the Homeworld Tower, a blue steel scaffolding tower of about 50m height crowned by a green light. At night, this green light can be seen from Gilmore, 10km away.

Over 90,000 people now live in Tuggeranong. The historic Pine Island has become a popular swimming hole, just ten minutes walk from the town centre. On weekends in summer, several hundred families will be enjoying the sun and water along the river's sandy shores.

The Tuggeranong creek is now a storm water drain. Air pollution in the "cold plains" sometimes results in warm air inversions trapping the smog in a layer across the valley. Cleaning dead bogong moths off the flood lights around Canberra's tourist attractions costs the ACT government over $100,000/year*.

For a glimpse of the socio-economics of Tuggeranong within Canberra, note the following (1996 Census):
It's been seven years, and fuck I'm glad I don't live in that dump any more.

*Ok, I made this figure up. The point being that money is spent cleaning wasted food off of badly designed buildings.

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