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.