Turner is a suburb in the Australian city of
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, close to
Canberra City
Civic is the city centre or central business district of Canberra. "Civic" is a common name for the district, but it is also called Civic Centre, City Centre, Canberra City and Canberra, and its official division name is ''City''.
Canberra's Ci ...
and the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
(located in the suburb of
Acton Acton may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Acton
Australia
* Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie
* Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton
Canada ...
).
Turner is named after Sir
George Turner, a Federalist, legislator and one of the founders of the
Australian Constitution
The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the ...
. He was the 18th
Premier of Victoria
The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly ...
, and later Federal Treasurer under
prime ministers
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Barton,
Deakin and
Reid
Reid is a surname of Scottish origin. It means "red".
People with the surname
* Alan Reid (disambiguation)
* Alex Reid (disambiguation), includes Alexander Reid
* Amanda Reid, Australian Paralympic athlete
* Amanda Reid (taxonomist), Australia ...
. Streets in Turner are mostly named after writers, legislators and pioneers.
Demographics
In the , the population of Turner was 4,470, including 56 (1.3%) Indigenous persons and 2,911 (65.1%) Australian-born persons. Only 12.5% of dwellings were separate houses (compared to the Australian average of 72.3%), while 13.8% were semi-detached, row or terrace houses (Australian average: 12.6%) and 73.2% were flats, units or apartments (Australian average: 14.2%). 45.1% of the population were professionals, compared to the Australian average of 24.0%. Notably 25.1% worked in central government administration, compared to the Australian average of 1.1%, although the ACT-wide average is 17.1%. Turner is favoured by students and young adults with 48.1% of its population in the 20- to 34-year-old age group (compared to the Australian average of 20.5%). The suburb has few children under 15: 7.7%, compared to 18.2% Australia-wide. 38.5% of the dwellings are occupied by single person households, compared to the Australian average of 25.6%. 59.9% of the population had no religion, while 12.3% were Catholic, 4.7% not stated, 4.6% Anglican and 3.1% Hindu.
Design
![South Turner Architecture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/South_Turner_Architecture.jpg)
Turner was developed in the 1940s and 1950s. The suburb is an example of garden city design with wide nature strips and generously proportioned roads.
Turner, though a small suburb, can be divided into three logical areas:
* The south east area which is bounded by
Northbourne Avenue
Northbourne Avenue is a major road in Canberra, Australia. It extends from City Hill in the south, to the Federal Highway in the north.
It is a north–south running road which has three lanes for motorised traffic, and one lane for bicyc ...
, Barry Drive, Watson Street (Turner Parkland) and Masson Street (
Haig Park
Haig Park is a park in the suburbs of Braddon and Turner in Canberra, Australia. It lies on either side of Northbourne Avenue.
The park is named to honour Earl Haig, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces during the First ...
). This area was first developed in the 1940s and originally consisted of detached dwellings. Very few of these houses remain after early twenty-first century redevelopment, the low-density housing having been replaced by medium-density unit blocks.
* The western part which is bounded by Barry Drive, David Street and McCaughey Street consists mainly of detached dwellings.
* The northern part of the suburb which is bounded by Northbourne Avenue, David Street, McCaughey Street and Greenway Street consists of a mixture of detached dwellings, town houses and flats.
David Street which forms Turner's northern boundary is designed to line up with
Black Mountain in one direction and
Mount Majura
Mount Majura is a small mountain with an elevation of that is located in the northern suburbs of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Mount Majura lies close to the more prominent Mount Ainslie and is the highest point wit ...
in the other direction.
Original block sizes were generous in Turner, ranging from around 800 m
2 to 1400 m
2, with some even reaching 1600 m
2. 900–1000 m
2 is typical. In the postwar period when resources were scarce, disproportionately small houses were built on these large blocks that are now inner city. This has made Turner blocks well suited for redevelopment, whether it be for units, townhouses, dual occupancies or occasional luxury houses. It was quite usual with the original buildings to have tiny three bedroom and even two bedroom houses on the blocks with floor areas of around 85 m
2 – 110 m
2. These houses were not only small but typically had tiny windows and were poorly positioned on the block for solar access – an important consideration in Canberra's cold climate. Houses were typically positioned for aesthetic effect with various ideas like inner-corner semi-detached (Hackett Gardens), facing the corner (Macleay Street) or symmetrical arrangements between the houses (Holder Street).
Few houses remain in their original unextended state. Floor plans of the original government designed and built houses can be obtained from the local planning authorities. Many houses have been replaced by multi-story unit developments. The scale of redevelopment post-2000 has been significant—the population in the suburb has grown from 1,852 people in 2001 to 3,010 in 2006 and 3,595 in 2011.
A number of artifacts of the original design of Turner can still be seen. Firstly, as is typical for Canberra, powerlines are behind the houses so as not to interfere with street trees. Street lamps are low and designed for pedestrians. Several different designs of lamp were installed originally, and examples of each can be still be seen. Some streets have footpaths with the house numbers imprinted on the concrete and red fire hydrants can be seen in some areas. Because the suburb's construction was interrupted by the war, various ideas can be seen in the layout of footpaths. For example, in the southern areas, footpaths cut off the diagonal of the block. McKay Gardens has service lanes, uncharacteristic both of the suburb and the Canberra region.
Many of the single houses between
Sullivans Creek
Sullivans Creek, a partly perennial stream of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Location and features
Sullivans Creek rises close to the border betwee ...
and
Northbourne Avenue
Northbourne Avenue is a major road in Canberra, Australia. It extends from City Hill in the south, to the Federal Highway in the north.
It is a north–south running road which has three lanes for motorised traffic, and one lane for bicyc ...
have been replaced by two and three storey flats in recent years as a result of being zoned in the Inner North Precinct. Land adjoining Northbourne Avenue (except Havelock House) is now zoned to permit redevelopment with 25 metre (about 8 storeys) high flats or 32 metres (about 11 storeys) at the corners of Macarthur Avenue with Northbourne Avenue. Low-rise offices are permitted in a small area in the southeast of the suburb around McKay Gardens.
Suburb amenities
Turner has a combined Special-Education and Mainstream
Public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
situated between David, Hartley and Condamine Streets, with a combined Pre-school. Child-care centres in the suburb include:
* Christopher Robin's Children's Garden (Watson Street)
* Sage Education and Childcare (Moore Street)
* Treehouse in the Park (Ormond Street)
Turner has several churches:
* a
Baptist Church
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
(Condamine Street),
* a
Ukrainian Orthodox Church
The history of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the history of Christianity, to the Apostolic Age, with mission trips along the Black Sea and a legend of Saint Andrew even ascending the hills of Kyiv. The first Ch ...
(McKay Gardens),
* a
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...
(MacLeay Street),
* a
Lutheran Church
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
(Watson Street)
* a
Friends Meeting House
A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held.
Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...
(
Quakers Church) (Corner of Bent and Condamine Streets)
* a
Korean Full Gospel church meeting at the Baptist church.
It also has a
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
club (in Condamine Street) and
lawn bowls
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
club (in McCaughey Street) and several ethnic clubs, a
French association (the
Alliance Française
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
) (in McCaughey Street) and
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
club (in David Street) and
Croatian club (in McCaughey Street). There was a police youth club on Watson Street (relocated to West Belconnen in late 2006 due to costly maintenance issues with the building).
Turner is within walking distance of the CBD and the Australian National University. The suburb adjoins the local O'Connor shops.
Open space
Turner has a high proportion of parks and open space. This is due to a number of factors:
* It contains half of
Haig Park
Haig Park is a park in the suburbs of Braddon and Turner in Canberra, Australia. It lies on either side of Northbourne Avenue.
The park is named to honour Earl Haig, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces during the First ...
– a large park of
pine tree
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...
s originally built as a barrier to reduce dust from affecting the city, when Canberra was still mostly a
sheep station
A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...
.
* It contains a flood/drainage reserve associated with
Sullivans Creek
Sullivans Creek, a partly perennial stream of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Location and features
Sullivans Creek rises close to the border betwee ...
which makes up a large portion of parkland.
* It contains several public sports ovals.
* It contains Turner primary school which has a generous oval and open space.
* It contains a Tennis club attached to Haig Park.
Politics
Turner is located within the federal
electorate
Electorate may refer to:
* The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate''
* The dominion of a Prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806
* An electoral district
An ...
of
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
and it is represented by
Alicia Payne
Alicia Emma Payne (born 24 July 1982) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2019 federal election. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and represents the Division of Canberra ...
for the
Labor Party. In the
ACT Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly) is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building on Civic Sq ...
, Turner is part of the
electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, two Labor, two
Greens and one
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the ''Turner'' polling place at Turner School in the
2022 federal[ and 2020 ACT] elections.
Geology
Calcareous shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
s from the Canberra Formation are overlain by Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
alluvium
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
. This rock is the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains".
Several fault lines pass through Turner including the inactive Acton Fault.
Notes and references
{{North Canberra Suburbs
Suburbs of Canberra