A2ZACT With Brent Ford – Ainslie

Canberra man Brent Ford is aiming to run every suburb of Canberra in alphabetical order. Ainslie was the second stop.

Ainslie is quite a large suburb, so a 5km track is not able to cover all the sections of it.

Ainslie is home to Canberra’s most successful Aussie Rules team. The IGA has an incredible selection of cheeses and Edgar’s is amazing. Anglican All Saints Church was moved to the suburb from Rookwood Cemetery. The suburb also has indigenous heritage at Corroboree Park. #A2ZACT pic.twitter.com/welya32nYM

— Brent Ford (@BrentFord26) January 8, 2021

The track covered an area mainly around the shops, down toward the Football Club and in the direction of North Ainslie school but not quite that far. You would be able to do another 5km journey through areas not covered. I have spent a lot of time walking around the suburb and there is plenty to see. It’s one of those old, leafy suburbs with access to the tracks around Mt Ainslie as well.

The suburb is named after James Ainslie, who did not come to a good end, though there are a lot of things named after him throughout Canberra. Even the sheep statues in Civic are in tribute to Mr Ainslie.

You can see a collection of old photos in this Old Canberra video.

You can Feel The Power of the suburb. You can find more about the moving of the church building from Rookwood Cemetery. You can see the range of cheeses at the Ainslie IGA. Ainslie school has quite a bit of history as well, but the building is actually located in Braddon. You would probably say the same thing about the Hotel Ainslie (Olims). I found out recently they used to have a lot of live music there.

There are plenty of parks around, as well as the pump track at the school, which is fun for a ride around. I used to live in Hackett, so I spent a lot of time riding or walking into the city and finding various paths and different ways to get through the suburb. One thing you can count on is seeing large amounts of kangaroos around the area, especially at night time.

Once again, if you have anything further to add, historical facts, funny stories, places to visit, please feel free to comment.

Tags: A2ZACT, Canberra, running