“Yesterdays” columnist NICHOLE OVERALL reflects on the history of the early, first steps of the development of the Woden Valley.

THE middle-aged bureaucrat in a sensible suit and shoes stood atop the elevated rise, looking out on a valley encircled by gently undulating hills.

To the north, Canberra’s Civic Centre was a mere speck. On a ridge to the west, it is possible to make out the Mt Stromlo Observatory, sunlight glinting from the dome of 1911, housing one of the world’s largest astronomical telescopes.

“Right down there, boys. A thriving centre of houses, shops, offices, schools and sports fields!”

The sons of Sir John Overall* thought their dad may have lost the plot. 

The inaugural commissioner of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC), appointed by Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1957 to see Canberra’s floundering development cemented, was gesticulating at a flood plain dotted with sheep, scrubby trees and a mere handful of dwellings.

It seemed more suited as an extension of the only other real sign of life: the gravestones of the Canberra General Cemetery, its first residents in situ from 1936.

Then in the early 1960s, the Overalls had trooped up Red Hill for a panoramic view of the site of the capital’s first “new town”, declared a “great experiment in decentralised urban planning”.

What was recorded as thousands of acres – population, nine – being foretold as the promising home of the Woden district was yet to see a single sod turned.

On the front page of “The Canberra Times” of April 14, 1962, Overall noted its beginnings marked a “significant milestone in the history of the National Capital”.

The location was connected with one of the earliest and longest-surviving European properties in the original Land District of Queanbeyan. The various occupants were a who’s who of the region.

From the late 1820s it was part of a vast area known as “Jerrabomberra”, land grant of John Palmer, purser on the First Fleet’s flagship “Sirius”. 

In the 1830s, a substantial south-west portion came into the possession of Irish surgeon, James Fitzgerald Murray. 

The good doctor – brother of the first local politician and Yarralumla owner, Terence – was responsible for the convict-built, brick-and-stone homestead and the moniker. Numerous sources suggest his choice was for the king of the Norse gods and Thor’s dad, Odin – in Old English “Wōden”. 

An alternate modern assertion is that it’s from an Aboriginal word for possum.

Mrs Anna Bunn also took up residence. She authored what’s believed in the first novel published “on mainland Australia and the first on the continent by a woman” – albeit anonymously – “The Guardian” in 1838.

Thomas Rutledge, squire of Carwoola and Martin Byrne, of Queanbeyan’s Royal Hotel, featured as proprietors before “first family” of Duntroon, the Campbells, took over.

On the creation of the Federal Territory, the house and 1200 acres were shaved off. The wider surrounds, referred to as Yarralumla Creek Valley, were parcelled out as World War I soldier settlements.

One was Yamba: essentially today’s Phillip and Swinger Hill. Rather than a “swinging ’60s” enclave, the latter was “one of the largest medium-density housing projects in Australia” – named for its 1930s surveyor, Louis Swinger.

With the district soon to revert to “Woden”, in 1963 the first house in the first of 12 suburbs, Hughes, was completed. “Woden – V266” was a two-bedroom, less than 11-square construction costing 4600 pounds – around $140,000 today.

Minister for the ACT Doug Anthony was an original resident, keen to encourage reluctant Canberrans to similarly branch out.

Long-time locals confirm very attractive prices for blocks – as low as $600 (less than $10,000 today) – was the real enticement for “moving out to the sticks”.

Much like Canberra generally, after a slow start, Woden progressed apace. 

The “Town Centre” commenced in 1967. In short order there’d be the Plaza, a sixth golf course for the capital and its second major medical facility. Six years on, “Canberra’s tallest high-rise”, the more than 20-storey former MLC Tower, dominated the skyline.

The accelerated growth wasn’t without criticism – and controversy.

On January 26, 1971, a torrential storm saw seven drowned near Yarra Glen.

An inquiry held that the multiplicity of new buildings had outstripped the infrastructure necessary to keep up.

The first of four “satellite cities”, after Woden came Belconnen in 1967, Tuggeranong in 1973 and Gungahlin two years later.

Each was planned as “a substantially self-contained town, physically separated from, but conveniently related to, the main City” with “limits on their growth and retaining the parkland, ridges and open space”.

Given all that history, dispiritingly, an online search of Woden’s “Places of Note and Interest” reveals a small list that includes the Bus Interchange and “the Woden Storm Drain – one of 26 legal graffiti sites within the ACT”.

There’s other ironic quirks. 

Like a Canberra pub named for King O’Malley who for 18 long years made it illegal to have a drink in public in the Territory, Woden’s suburb Torrens is for the bloke who created the Land Titles system for freehold ownership of property – the opposite of the way it’s done in the ACT.

Wonder what the god of wisdom would make of that?

*Yes, Nichole’s married to the second of those sons and for more on her work see anoverallview.wixsite/blog.