Community leaders transform Canberra's south suburbs through markets and gardens

Walk down Anketell Street in Tuggeranong on a Saturday morning and you'll witness something quietly remarkable: a neighbourhood that has learned to know itself. The Tuggeranong Farmers Market, operating fortnightly at Tuggeranong Hyperdome since 2019, has become less a transaction of produce and more a gathering point where locals—many of them recent arrivals seeking connection—reconnect with seasonal eating and each other.

This is the story of Wanniassa and Tuggeranong south: a sprawling region that encompasses suburbs like Greenway, Bonython and Kambah, where population growth has accelerated dramatically over the past five years. Yet rather than feeling transient, these neighbourhoods have developed a reputation for fostering genuine community. The difference, locals and organisers say, lies in the people willing to build that culture intentionally.

At the Wanniassa Community Garden near Anketell Street, volunteers manage over 80 plots where residents from at least 15 different cultural backgrounds grow everything from Vietnamese herbs to Greek vegetables. There's no membership fee—just a commitment to shared maintenance and knowledge-sharing. The waiting list regularly stretches to 40 names, a testament to how hungry the community is for connection beyond the screen.

Community centres in the region punch above their weight. Tuggeranong Community Centre on Farrer Avenue runs over 60 different programs weekly, from language classes to fitness groups, and their staff report that the most successful initiatives are those shaped directly by participant feedback. "People don't want to be lectured at," says the centre's coordinator. "They want to belong."

The southern suburbs' retail landscape—once dominated by big-box shopping centres—is gradually shifting. Independent bookshops, yoga studios and family-run cafes are taking root along Anketell, Soward Way and Erindale Drive, many started by locals who noticed gaps in what their neighbours needed.

What's distinctive about Wanniassa and Tuggeranong south isn't novelty. It's persistence. The Kambah Uniting Church community kitchen, the Bonython playground upgrade driven by parent volunteers, the informal skill-sharing networks that emerge when people with diverse professional backgrounds become actual neighbours—these aren't flashy initiatives. They're unglamorous infrastructure for belonging.

As Canberra's southern suburbs continue to grow, they're proving something worth watching: that rapid expansion doesn't have to mean anonymity. When residents invest in knowing each other—through gardens, markets, centres and shared spaces—even a sprawling suburban region can feel like a village worth staying in.

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