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In winter, many bird species very sensibly leave Canberra for the warm north, some going as far as New Guinea. However,  this allows us to pay more attention to the ones that stay behind. Some of these, including Gang-gangs and King Parrots, have spent summer breeding in the Snow Gums in the Brindabella and Tidbinbilla Ranges above Canberra and come...

When you picture a 12-year-old boy with cake icing, it's usually smeared from ear to ear. Not so for Ethan Penton, the Dunlop youngster taking the cake decorating world by storm. While most of us stick to the well-thumbed Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book for inspiration, Ethan is concocting 3D snowmen, robots and other gravity-defying cakes. So impressive are his...

Good things are worth waiting for, according to the head honcho of Canberra's Handmade Market, Julie Nichols, who welcomes the return of the very popular market at its regular venue at Exhibition Park (EPIC) with 270 stalls from 25-27 June. The Handmade Market came close to returning in March 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to its plans, and the...

More than 1000 Canberrans across six suburbs have been given the chance to change the look of their streets as part of a pilot forestry program. The ACT Government is empowering Canberrans to decide what types of trees are planted throughout their suburbs and streets, growing the city’s tree canopy. Tree plantings have started in 31 streets across six suburbs,...

A couple of the highlights of this autumn in Canberra will have passed most people by, quite understandably. Two parrots, very different in looks and lifestyle, have been surprisingly present in suburbia throughout most of May, and as I write this, they are still around. What they have in common is unfortunate – they are both listed as being in...

While still seen as a new part of Canberra, Gungahlin has grown up into a thriving suburban centre. However, it's still struggling to get its dues. Hayden Shaw, 26, has lived his whole life in Gungahlin. "It's a convenient place to live," he says. "Living and working in Gungahlin. I haven't seen any reason to move outside the area." The...

The first time Diane Du Toit saw her mother, Maureen, put on a headset that filled her ears with her favourite music, she burst into tears. The headset was organised thanks to an initiative from the Rotaract Club of Canberra, which has partnered with Goodwin Aged Care for the delivery of the sets to their residents. The initiative is backed...

ACT Fire and Rescue is fighting fire with more firefighters as the next wave of an ongoing recruitment process to find another 99 people during the next three years begins. The latest recruitment round closes in July for prospective firefighters to begin the process for acceptance into recruit college in January next year. Based on last year's growing interest in the...

The much-anticipated traditional temple to serve the strong Hindu community in Gungahlin has taken another stride forward with Bhoomi Puja, a traditional ground-breaking ceremony held last Saturday (5 June) to mark the beginning of its construction. Despite the chilly weather, Canberra Hindu Mandir chairman Dr Krishna Nadimpalli OAM said they had a fantastic attendance with more than 1000 people present...

Canberra landmarks could be considered for the ACT coat of arms by a community reference panel, with the design to be decided by the public before the end of 2021. The eight-person community reference panel includes Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Roslyn Brown and United Ngunnawal Youth Council member Bradley Mapiva-Brown, with members of the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, Professor...

Grassroots campaigns are helping to keep Canberra's hotspots cool during summer, with a third micro-forest planned for Holt following a CSIRO report that identified areas of West Belconnen and Gungahlin as the hottest in the ACT. The 2017 report that mapped Canberra's surface heat in urban areas is being used to plan a series of micro-forests in suburbs most affected...

Multimedia digital memorials could be coming to cemeteries in the ACT, but what are they and how would they work? As technology evolves, its applications are becoming more widespread and are now becoming a growing part of the funeral industry. Digital memorials allow mourners to leave images, videos and messages of their lost loved ones in an online virtual guestbook....

Judith exhausted her savings sleeping in motels and her car to escape abusive neighbours at her Housing ACT complex and couldn't access crisis or low income accommodation. Kate was facing eviction from community housing after losing her job and caring for two young children including a son with complex behavioural and mental health needs. Monica was fleeing domestic violence and...