Woden (Arabanoo) Town Park

Linking Woden Town Centre to Eddison Park

• Location
• Linking Woden Town Centre to Eddison Park
• Commemorating European settlement of Australia
• Designed as an inner city park
• A pleasant pedestrian link and place for lunch
• Reference
  

Location

Eastern edge of Woden Town Centre, Phillip.

• A map showing Woden Region with the location of Woden (Arabanoo) Town Park marked.
• A map of Woden (Arabanoo) Town Park.

Linking Woden Town Centre to Eddison Park

Arabanoo Park, on the eastern edge of Woden Town Centre in Phillip, provides a pleasant paved and lit pedestrian link between the town centre and Eddison Park and the parking areas on the eastern side of Yarralumla Creek. It is intended also for lunchtime use. The park's name links it to the celebration in 1988 of two hundred years of European settlement of Australia.

Commemorating European settlement of Australia

The completion of this park during the bicentennial year of European settlement of Australia, resulted in its naming to commemorate that anniversary. The official significance of the name, as recorded in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette in June 1988, is that '... "Arabanoo" (or Manly) was the name of a male native who lived in Sydney Cove at the time of arrival of the First Fleet'. Arabanoo was captured at Manly on 31 December 1788 by order of Governor Phillip, who wished to learn the language and customs of Aborigines. Arabanoo helped to care for fellow Aborigines when in April 1789 there was an outbreak of smallpox. He caught the disease and died in May that year. The name links the park to the suburb of Phillip, named for Governor Phillip who led the First Fleet to Australia. Many of the street names in Phillip are associated with the First, Second and Third Fleets.

Designed as an inner city park

The development of the park, which addresses Callam Street adjacent to the Woden Youth Centre proceeded in the 1980s. Callam Street is named for James Callam, the surgeon on the Supply on its journey to Australia. The park provides a paved pedestrian route from the town centre to the parking areas and Eddison Park to the east. The western part of the park has been formally treated with planter boxes, seating and granite sett paving. It is entered through pergolas covered with deciduous climbing plants and is intended for lunchtime use by workers from the nearby town centre. The ground in the eastern part of the park has been shaped to create a pleasant grassed depression. This has been planted informally on the periphery with coniferous and deciduous trees thus creating an attractive area also for lunchtime use. The main path winds its way informally past the depression. The two parts of the park are linked by an attractively designed wooden bridge which spans Yarralumla Creek. The path in both areas and along the bridge is lit at night.

A pleasant pedestrian link and place for lunch

Arabanoo Park provides an opportunity for pedestrians to cross Yarralumla Creek in a pleasant landscape environment or to stop for lunch. As its landscape matures its attractiveness will increase.

Reference

Gray, J (1997) The Historical and Cultural Background of selected Urban Parks in Canberra.